This post is written by Leslie Hudson as a companion for Unit 22, Session 1 of The Gospel Project for Adults, Volume 8: From Wonder to Rejection (Summer 2023).

This week in class, you’ll study a story you’ve likely heard before. Maybe it was called “Jesus Calms the Storm” or “Lord of the Wind and Rain.” If you’ve spent your life in church, you probably even know the moral of the story: Jesus is with us in the storm.

But maybe it’s more than that. Perhaps you’ll hear it with new ears this time, considering there’s a deeper question: Whose bright idea was it to head into the stormy waters anyway?

When I was in sixth grade, I had two passions in life: gymnastics and my elementary school music class. I was a child of the 80s, so Mary Lou Retton convinced me that I wanted to be in the Olympics as a vaulting gymnast. And Tony Cook was quite possibly the best elementary music teacher ever. He didn’t teach us about quarter notes and half notes, but he taught us how to sing harmony to the Beach Boys and “Maniac on the Floor” and “Monster Mash,” then he choreographed all the songs and taught a couple hundred kids how to put on a musical revue.

On the week of our sixth-grade musical, I headed to my Monday night gymnastics lesson, already talking about the musical in three nights. But halfway through a tumbling pass, I heard a big crack and looked over to see my coach’s eyes wide and staring at my arm: both bones were broken. As she drove me to the hospital, I asked her, “Do you think I’ll be able to do my musical on Thursday night?” She graciously responded, “Maybe, sweetheart.”

That broken arm crushed me. I didn’t get to sing and dance in the musical. I also didn’t get to try out for cheerleading, which was a secondary reason for taking gymnastics. I was heartbroken, and I felt like my plans had been derailed.

But I discovered that though I couldn’t tumble or dance with a splinted broken arm for eight weeks, I could still play the piano. So in all my free time, I practiced. I played Canon in D for that recital, cast and all. My broken arm was a pivotal moment in my life. Had it not happened, I would not have been so devoted to piano, which became my primary focus in high school, my college major, and my career.   

In considering this week’s primary truth, that Jesus has all authority over nature, I wondered, “What role did Jesus play in my broken arm?” He knew I loved gymnastics, but He had much bigger plans for me in music. He knew I loved the spotlight, but perhaps His venue choice for me was the concert hall rather than the school gym. He also knew that maybe I didn’t need to start hanging out with the middle school cheerleaders at that point in my life; perhaps I wasn’t strong enough in my faith to stand up to their influence.

Today, I can thank God for that broken arm and how my life pivoted because of it. If you had told me at the time that God allowed it or ordained it, I probably would have been mad. But now I praise Him for proving He was with me in the struggle and for all the fallout. My life was immensely blessed through what seemed to be a disaster.

Back to that deeper question: It was Jesus’s bright idea to get into that boat, on that sea, that night. He knew the storm was blowing in, and He knew exactly what it would do to that boat. But His disciples needed their own pivot point in following Him, and to do it, He was willing to take them through that storm.  

Leslie Hudson loves her mornings of silence, coffee, and Jesus—not in that order. She lives with her husband and kids in White Bluff, Tennessee, where they raise blueberries, figs, and bees. She loves to spend her free time reading, writing, journaling, and helping others know and follow Jesus.