Have you ever been caught in a storm on the water?

Last weekend, John and I took the jet ski out on Fort Loudon Lake here in Knoxville, TN. It wasn’t supposed to rain till 6pm, so we had all afternoon.

We launched in Farragut to jet around the lake — which, let’s be real, is really a section of the Tennessee River that’s dammed up juuust wide enough to justify being called a lake. Still looks like a big ol’ river on the map to me, though, the way it snakes around the Knoxville area.

Anyway, we launched on the “lake” and rode southwest to Lenoir City and back — checking out all the mega mansions along the way. After stopping to gas up at the nearby marina, John asked if I was game to go northeast into downtown Knoxville. (The lake / river flows adjacent to Neyland Stadium, home of the University of Tennessee Vols football team. Go, Big Orange!

I’d never seen the city from the water before, so I was all in. We headed that way.

This was just past 3pm, and I noticed a small dark cloud fairly close. But, it wasn’t supposed to rain till 6 o’clock, and the cloud was pretty small. No rain drizzle. We ignored it.

Not quite 30 minutes later, as we snaked our way around the “lake,” John stopped to check the map because he thought we’d be closer to downtown than we were. I looked over my shoulder and that dark cloud was a LOT bigger than before. It looked like a storm. So, we checked the map and then the radar.

“Now it’s going to rain at 4pm!” I blurted. Alarmed, we both agreed to turn around immediately. If we were lucky, we’d get back to the boat launch right around that time.

John had us cruising and I held on tight.

At first, we seemed to skirt the cloud, but then the rain started. Thankfully, it wasn’t a downpour, but the drops pricked our faces. The sky went gray. I kept my eyes on our proximity to the darkest part of the cloud. Every bend in the “lake” felt like a new challenge. Would we make it before the worst hit? I prayed we would.

Then. LIGHTNING. We reached a wider section and saw a bolt in the distance. No. God. No!

The rain and discomfort didn’t impact our safety. But lightning? We were completely vulnerable.

Immediately, my prayers changed. We could NOT control the weather.

“God, only you can control nature. The rain. The water. The waves. The lightning. You knew we would be out here today. Right now. You know how this day will end. You know what is meant to happen in our lives. We can’t control it. God, I trust You.”

Friend, I am not kidding or exaggerating when I say that I instantly felt peace. You may be familiar with the “peace that surpasses understanding” verse in the Bible. Philippians 4:7. Here’s how the New Living Translation puts it: “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

But let’s back up… in the Bible… not in this story.

Verse 6 reads: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Then, verse 7: “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

In order to feel that unexplainable, inconceivable peace, I had to first STOP WORRYING and PRAY.

As soon as I finished praying, I started singing. Not out loud, but in my mind. Any song that popped into my head about God delivering. God being bigger than our circumstances. God being faithful. There were several, but I can only remember one at the moment: Greater is He, by Blanca.

One part of the song reads:

I face an ocean
The waves are raging
Help me to look up
You’ll do what I can’t
And I’ll walk on dry land
I’ll step out on the sea
Cause I know who is with me.

And then the chorus:

And greater is He
Living in me
Than he who is in the world
Whatever may come
His strength is enough
My heart is at peace
For greater is He

I belted that — and and a few other songs — out in my mind and felt SO at peace, while still holding on tight. At one point, I did tell John to slow down because I thought he was going too fast, but even then, I trusted God with the lightning and the storm.

Several minutes later, we snaked around another bend and straight ahead the sky looked lighter. The dark clouds were on either side. The rain stopped. I thought I saw the sun trying to peek out.

“I see you, God.”

What I didn’t see was more lightning. At least, not in my direct line of sight.

The clouds were still dark all around us. I could see the sailboats at the marina and the bridge we needed to go under to get back to the launch site. We were close. I also knew we were already safe.

Once at the dock, I saw more lighting in the distance. The storm was still near.

But, it didn’t move overhead as we made it out of the water and got the jet ski on the trailer.

As we drove home, the peace stuck with me. Peace in a storm. I thanked God for showing me what that looked like. Felt like. For keeping His promise of peace that Paul laid out in Philippians 4:7.

If we stop worrying and pray, we find peace.

Crazy? Yes.

Easy? Not always.

True? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Friend, I don’t know what your storm is today. What you’re trying to outrun. The lightning that feels like it could strike at any moment.

What I do know is this: No matter what your storm is, God’s peace is available for you, too.

I’m not special.

It’s tough — because it goes against human nature — but simple.

1. Acknowledge your worry.
2. Admit you don’t have control.
3. Accept that God is in control.
4. Ask Him to help you trust His way.

I pray for everyone who reads my blog, so if you needed this today, please know I’m praying for you!

And, if you’d like a lighthearted jet ski story, click here to read about the time we took our Old English Bulldog, Gus, on the jet ski.

CLICK HERE to download my FREE devotional, Live With Zeal — a deep dive on what the Bible has to say about ZEAL.