Some of the students in JC's really, really love a good scary movie. They love it when the tension climbs through the roof - and then BAM!  

I guess they have a point - better a scary movie - than something scary happening in our lives.

Sometimes life is the scariest thing we see.  We lose our job, our funding for school, we break up, we have a misunderstanding with a loved one, or we get that test back, the doctor tells us we should come to talk over the lab results.

I do not believe that following God promises that nothing scary will ever happen. 

I do believe that whatever happens - even if the scariest we can imagine happens - God will not ditch us.  Not only will He never leave us hanging - but He will use every challenge we face to accomplish the greatest possible good. He isn't the God only of people walking in sunshine. He's the God of those who find themselves in turbulent waters. Not only will He stand by us in those times - but He'll reveal Himself to us in ways that just can't be understood any other season. 

You can tell sometimes even - when you're facing troubled waters - that someone standing next to you has sailed through them with God captaining their ship; they don't flinch.  They don't scatter.  They pass onto you their knowledge of how to make it through the storms.  They perceive the stormy seas as that which teaches real skills - something we're privileged to learn.

It's hard to find any in Scripture who God was able to really use to lead His people who hadn't learned how to steer through storms with Him. In fact - if you read some of their accounts - you get the sense that their whole life lead up to them being able to do so - and their willingness to do that hard thing - turned out to be the biggest blessing for them and those around them. 

I'd like to have those skills too.

Where would we be without Joseph's, David's and Ruth's ability - just to name a few - to navigate the storms with Him? Their willingness to face their fears with God - is a blessing to us even today. 

Whether we're looking at smooth sailing or stormy seas - God will always stand by us reveal Himself to us and grow us into the people He made us to be - and together the people who represent His Kingdom on Earth.