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Letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
Let me begin by asking you a few questions.
Are you in a storm right now? Are the waves thrashing against you and the winds battering you? Does it feel like life just keeps coming blow after blow?
Or are you in a time of calm? Are the waters serenely glasslike and the winds nonexistent? Are you cruising through life with minimal obstacles?
I think we all know what it’s like to be in both. We know what it’s like to battle through the storm in hopes of reaching calm waters, feeling as though we’ll never see peace again. And we know what it’s like to finally reach the calm waters and put the storm out of our minds.
How often, though, do we take the time to reflect on the storms and the trials we’ve faced to get through to the other side? The trials may be brutal while we face them, but it’s the effort to get past them that makes us stronger. Our battle through the storm develops who we are in the calm times and shapes our reactions to future storms.
In this issue, we urge you to take a moment to reflect on the storms you’ve faced and overcome. Examine how these times made you stronger or how you are becoming stronger through the trials you are facing now.
My hope is that you find inspiration from our authors who have demonstrated extraordinary vulnerability in evaluating their times of grief and pain. I hope that you find their advice helpful and that you can empathize with their stories of finding calm after the storms. I hope that you are encouraged by these stories of perseverance and revival.
The theme, STORM/CALM, is a reminder that both aspects are part of life, and there is value in both. We are the people we are today because we have experienced storms and calm.
I have hope because I believe God meets us in both the storm and the calm — in our trials and in our victories.
We serve a God who commands the wind and the sea — a God who tells us to have faith in him in the midst of the storm. He tells us that He will not let us perish, but, rather, He will rebuke the storm and bring calm. How great is it that we serve the peacemaker, the bringer of calm?
Best Regards,
Jesse Watson