Life is a Storm

"Life is a storm, my young friend.  You will bask in the sunlight one moment,

be shattered on the rocks the next.  What makes you a man

is what you do when that storm comes."

~Edmond Dantés

This quotation comes from the protagonist of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.  It illustrates beautifully the tossing waves of our lives in this world and the peaks and valleys of our emotional experience.  Even more than, that, however, it points to our responsibility to respond to the storm.

Often we try to extend the sunlight as long as we can.  We seek to avoid at all cost begin shattered on the rocks.  Yet we cannot maintain that control.

Sooner or later the sun will be hidden by the dark storm clouds blown by heavy winds, threatening to swamp us and break our ship apart upon the rocks.  We take in sail and strain at the helm, but the current rushes us onward.

As Edmond Dantés said, what matters is not that these things happen, but what we do when we must face them.  Will we throw ourselves overboard to perish in despair?  Will we curse and blame those about us for our peril?  Will we jump into the lifeboat and row away with all our might in an attempt to save ourselves, leaving the rest to their fate?  Or will we entrust ourselves to the One who has power over the storm?

And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?
Then rising up He commanded the winds, and the sea,
and there came a great calm. But the men wondered, saying:
What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey Him?

Matthew 8:27