Faith under fire:

Faith under fire: A Presbyterian minister told of his days as a Navy submariner in the Pacific during World War II. "We would often come under depth charge attack by Japanese destroyers," he said. "The other sailors would be trembling with fear, while I just leaned back and read a comic book. One of them asked how I could be so calm. I explained to him that in my childhood I had very little supervision from my parents, so I spent many hours each day at the New Jersey beach. Sometimes a huge breaking wave would catch me by surprise and thrust me under the water, rolling me in the sand. But I learned when I would just relax thousands of air bubbles like the fingers of God would catch me up and lift me to the surface. Now, whenever I find myself in trouble, I just relax and wait for the fingers of God to reach under me and lift me up."

Marianne Uhlig of Germany once sailed from America to Japan on a Danish freighter. The voyage was stormy, and some of the passengers were afraid.  The captain, sensitive to their concerns, told a story at dinner about sailing through another storm.

His wife and eight-year-old daughter had accompanied him on one of his voyages, and they ended up sailing through a terrible storm.  Taking every precaution, the captain ordered all hands to their lifeboat stations.  He went to his cabin to awaken his wife and give her the news.  When he had explained the situation to her, she woke the little girl and told her that there was a bad storm and they must get up quickly.

The little girl asked, “Is father at the wheel?”  When the mother said that he was, the little girl said, “Then everything will be all right,” and turned over to go back to sleep.

We all go through bad storms in life.  When that happens, we need to ask, “Is our Father at the wheel?”  If he is—and he is—we have nothing to fear.