The Power Of Jesus Christ

In July 1995, my wife, Noel, two of our children, and I huddled on the floor, away from all windows, under the direct path of hurricane Erin in Pensicola, Florida. One magnificent old pine tree sheared off the corner of our bedroom as it fell. During the eye of the storm we walked outside in a perfect calm to see the devastation. Then, about 20 minutes later, we hid again against the backside of the storm as it brought down chimneys and crushed cars under snapped off oak limbs as thick as hundred-year-old trees.
It was a heart-wrenching, worship-filled moment in the face of raw, unstoppable power. The losses were painful, though nothing like the destruction of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1998, which took 10,000 lives—and which in turn was small compared to the cyclone that killed 131,000 in Bangladesh on April 30, 1991, and left nine million homeless. Beneath the wreckage of such wind you have two choices: worship or curse…

Elihu says it clearly in Job: “From its chambers comes the whirlwind…the clouds scatter [God’s] lighning. They turn around and around by His guidance, to accomplish all that He commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction…or for love, He causes it to happen… stop and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job37:9-14).
The composition of all things was not only created by Christ (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2), but is also held in being moment by moment throughout the whole universe by His will. “He… upholds the universe by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). “In Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Jesus Christ defines reality in the beginning and gives its form every second.
Fatalities, fevers, fish, food, fig trees. Anywhere you turn, Christ is the absolute master over all material substance.
Now we have a choice. Worship or curse… Will we worship or curse the One who rules the world? Shall sinners dictate who should live and who should die? Or shall we say with Hannah, “The LORD kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol [the grave] and raises up” (1 Samuel 2:6)? And shall we, with ashes on our heads, worship with Job, “Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21)? Will we learn from James that there is good purpose in it all: “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11)? Should we not then face the wind and stand on the waves of affliction and sing praise?

Taken from the book "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" by John Piper