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Hi there, welcome to Well Lit Soul, where we seek God, face darkness, and shine brighter. This week we will continue our 3-part series where we talk through the objective of Well Lit Soul. So, today’s blog is part 2 called: Face Darkness | Reside in the Storm.

One of the phrases I’ve been hearing and repeating a lot this year is, “there are some lessons you can only learn through a storm”. Which means, there is great purpose in the darkness we encounter and to eliminate it would be unwise at best. Because through the darkness, we become who we are meant to be. We learn who we really are. We learn who God truly is. We learn what faith looks like. And we learn to grow in Him.

So today, I want to talk about how to take courage and learning to be still in a storm rather than run away from it. The bible gives numerous references to storms, Luke 8:23-25 and Matthew 14:22-32 come to mind. But the storm I want to talk about today comes from the book of Jonah.

Many may be familiar with the story of Jonah. If you ask about him, they might say, “he was the man who was swallowed by a big fish and sat in its stomach for 3 days and nights”. And that would be correct! But I want to give a bit more context.

In chapter 1, God tells Jonah to go to Ninevah to preach against the wicked things they had done. But for reasons that are not given, Jonah does the opposite and decides to flee to Tarshish by way of Joppa. So he gets on a boat in Joppa but after the ship set sail, the crew encountered a mighty storm and recognized that Jonah was the cause. So they threw him overboard where he was subsequently swallowed by a great fish. 

Jonah was now in a position where he had nowhere to run. He encountered a physical storm and was consumed with literal darkness and his only option was to be still. And what did he do in his stillness? He prayed. Jonah chapter 2 shows his beautifully vulnerable prayer in full, and I recommend reading it. But at the close, he expresses remorse for his actions and God hears and answers him. Verses 9 and 10 read,

“9 But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

So whether the storms of our life are caused by disobedience like Jonah, or whether they are caused by time and chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12), we have two paths. One, we can run and avoid the pain or try to rush past the darkness because we are afraid of what is to come, resistant to the unknown, or uncomfortable with God’s process. Or two, we can lean in to the darkness, call on the Lord, and ask for His guidance and protection during the storm. 

And while we have these two paths, I believe we will continue to encounter storms and darkness in our lives until we have learned the lessons God intends for us to learn. So it’s best to take courage, confront the pain, and face the darkness and ask, “what is God trying to teach me through this storm? What am I supposed to learn? How is this supposed to change me?”

To be clear, this option is just as scary. It’s not necessarily fun or easy to do. But this is the reality of being a Christian. Going through storms is how we build our faith and trust in God. Facing the darkness within us and in our lives is how we work to become more like Him. And becoming like God requires this constant reflection (Philippians 4:8) as well as continued prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), study of His word (Psalm 119:105), fellowship with trusted Christians (Romans 12:15), and changing our minds and actions to be aligned with Him (Ephesians 4:21-24). 

And through this personal work, we can also learn to have joy in these trials and know that God will bring peace to our hearts regardless of where we are in the storm (Philippians 4:6-7, James 1:2-4). Because when we put our trust, faith, and hope in Him, He will always direct our paths because all things work together for His good (Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 8:28). 

Connection Question: How do you typically handle the storms of life? What have you learned from navigating storms over the years? How have those storms impacted your faith? 

Let me know in the comments, I’d love to connect with you about it.