I Will Praise You In The Storm

Habakkuk 1:2-4, 3:17-19
Last Wednesday the Crosswinds worship team began work on a song called "You're Never Giving Up" by Jonathan David Helser (you can listen to it at http://www.aplacefortheheart.org/, click on music player) and the next morning I left for my yearly camping trip with my two best friends. Every year we plan a trip to Cape Lookout on our kayaks. It's about a 4.5 mile paddle out in fairly open waters, which is not that big of a deal...usually. When we got to the launch site on Thursday it was about 20 mile an hour winds at our backs, but the waters looked calm. They looked calm because the white caps were on the back side of the swells due to wind direction. We were set on going out so we set out. It's about .6 mile to the first small island that we can break at. Roughly half way my friend John and I had a serious conversation about life and death and turning back. Turns out the swells were about 3-4 feet with 35-40 mile winds, and we were in 14 foot kayaks with 70 pounds of camping gear...yeah leaning on God came on strong. I began to sing "You're Never Giving Up" over and over. I was literally terrified. 4 hours later we landed safely on Shacklford Banks, ran into a very nice equestrian biologist were thought we were crazy for crossing in the rough seas. That night I read over all 6 passages were Jesus calmed seas. Long story short the trip was great fun playing with wild horses, kayaking about 13 miles total, sleeping on a beach, and watching the sunset over the Atlantic, except for the first 4 hours. I learned in my pitiful state on the seas that I need to learn to lean on God when times are good and terrifying. The real painful part is that we prayed for safety and it only took 10 minutes to forget the promise of peace, painful arrogance in stress and worry. The Word says to praise Him in all circumstances (1 Thess) good and bad. Forgive me Lord for only turning to You in times of terror!! But, thank You for calming to seas!! I will praise You at the peaks of the swells and in the valleys!
Blessings,
Scott