It was a dark and stormy night...
If you've ever followed Charles Schulz's Peanuts, you know that's the way Snoopy begins his
stories on his trusty typewriter while on top of his doghouse. Though the phrase is a modern-
day melodramatic trope, according to Wikipedia, the first "dark and stormy night" started as an
earnest original. The English novelist, playwright, and politician Sir Edward George Earle
Bulwer-Lytton used the line to open his 1830 book Paul Clifford. In full, the intro reads:
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents-except at occasional intervals, when it
was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our
scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that
struggled against the darkness."
There are NO periods in that 58-word starting sentence. The rest of the novel goes on to tell the
dark tale of a robber who doesn't know he's the son of the judge who eventually sentences him
to death. The twist at the end is that the robber frees himself and marries his cousin in America.
Sounds scary enough, doesn't it? Just...you gotta be wincing at that opening line. We've heard it
too many times to believe it. Ah, well. Before you judge Sir Edward too harshly, he was a
friend of Charles Dickens, and he wrote more than 30 popular novels and three plays-and he is
also famous for the line, "the pen is mightier than the sword." Not a bad legacy for someone
who was surely in Dickens' shadow two centuries ago and whose "It was a dark and stormy
night" has made it into the pulp fiction and parodies of American culture.
For me, the line is a true description of an incident that struck terror in my heart, for a few
minutes, anyway.
I was traveling home late one night from Indiana. I'd been to a sales event for my business
earlier that evening, and the road conditions-even after 11 pm-were miserable: a cold,
steady, cloud-burst of heavy rain, semi-tractor-trailers back-to-back in the slow and middle
lanes forcing me in my lightweight SUV to stay in the far left, fast lane next to the divider wall
that separated the south-bound from the north-bound lanes. (For the record, that sentence was
more than 70 words long. I feel you, Sir Edward!) The other traffic on the road was extremely
heavy in all lanes, and visibility, just horrific.
I survived crossing the Cincinnati bridge, and having left Cincinnati behind I was feeling a little
more confident. Then just south of Florence, KY (passing the infamous water tower that reads
"Florence Mall, Y'all!"), I felt my Equinox float... then skate... then spin... across all four lanes
of interstate. My vehicle was hydroplaning on the water that was coming down too fast to move
off the road and my car was too high in the water to control.
Fear doesn't begin to describe what I felt. I literally thought, "This is it. If I don't get crushed by
a truck or bounced off multiple cars, I will die here when I flip over the guardrail and land in a
ravine. I wonder if it will hurt?" All that processed in my brain in a millisecond. My out-loud
word for the moment? "Ohhhhhhh!! (not even an expletive!) A sort of fatalistic acceptance of
my reality. Even as I felt the vehicle glide, shifting to the right into the other traffic lanes, and
turning a full 360 degrees, suddenly all the other lanes miraculously cleared. No semis, no cars,
nothing. Clear sailing, literally, across four lanes of traffic, a break down lane, finally bouncing
off the last few feet of a guard rail and plummeting into the gully below.
Then I landed. And no airbags deployed. No crushing flips or head-long, nose-dive crashes...
just, THUD. Upright. On four wheels.
On-Star lit up and talked to me and help arrived. Would you believe... No injuries. No
irreparable damage. Even though I was 50 feet down (the wrecker charged by the foot for the
winch), and the dent on the guardrail was the perfect imprint of my whole vehicle, I DROVE
home. In my Equinox. Completely injury free, and ALIVE. (Major miracle!) All I can believe
is that an angel was riding beside me and several more angels held back traffic long enough for
me to escape death.
The following day as I headed toward town, I started thinking about a trip to the mountains in
eastern Kentucky later in the week, and I got a sudden vision of careening off a mountain, and
the fear took my breath. My heart seized, my body tensed, my blood pounded in my ears. I
literally gasped out loud. Something I'd never worried about was now a real fear.
Fear can be debilitating. One study found that 85 percent of the things we fear never happen.
The other 15 percent are either not as bad or teach us something valuable, making 97 percent of
our fears overstated and imaginary! Is it any wonder that Scripture tells us not to be afraid in
some variation of fear not or do not be afraid hundreds of times?
The servant of Elisha woke up one morning to what looked like certain death. Listen to the
story from 2 Kings, chapter 6.
8 Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, "I
will set up my camp in such and such a place."
9 The man of God [Elisha] sent word to the king of Israel: "Beware of passing that place,
because the Arameans are going down there." 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place
indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his
guard in such places.
11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, "Tell me!
Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?" 12 "None of us, my lord the king," said one of
his officers, "but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you
speak in your bedroom."
Talk about your worst fears realized! Jeff and I talked about a certain meal service which
neither of us had ever used or heard about before. And it popped up on our social media feeds
and I got an email about it in the same hour! I know you've probably experienced something
similar. So we know exactly how the King of Aram felt!
13 "Go, find out where he is," the king ordered, "so I can send men and capture him." The report
came back: "He is in Dothan." 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They
went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army
with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?" the
servant asked.
16 "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are
with them." 17 And Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see." Then
the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and
chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike this army with
blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. 19 Elisha told them, "This is
not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking
for." And he led them to Samaria. 20 After they entered the city, Elisha said, "LORD, open the
eyes of these men so they can see." Then the LORD opened their eyes and they looked, and there
they were, inside Samaria. 21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Shall I kill
them, my father? Shall I kill them?"
22 "Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill those you have captured with your own
sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back
to their master." 23 So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and
drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped
raiding Israel's territory.
Elisha's servant is like us. Just living life... We're doing our jobs, running our businesses,
serving at our church, and/or raising a family. Then we see or experience something that rocks
our world... hydroplaning us across a busy highway or surrounding us with odds that seem
overwhelmingly against us. How can I move forward when something like this is happening?
I'm not ready for this!!
I love how Elisha prays TWICE that eyes be opened. The first time was for the servant to see
the reality of the invisible world. The realm that so often we are not cognizant of, but that is at
work on our behalf. Sometimes overcoming our fears is a matter of our eyes being opened to
the Force that is with us and for us. As believers, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the
One who speaks truth, and Who is the manifest presence of God, with us, all the time. We can
trust Him and ask Him to open our eyes to see where He is at work!
The second time Elisha prays is for the enemy. I can't believe how helpless they became when
God struck them blind, and how trusting they were when Elisha told them to follow him! They
traveled 10 miles with horses and chariots and a strong force. Elisha led a whole blind army
from Dothan to Samaria, marched them right up to the King of Israel. And when they arrived,
he prayed for their sight to be restored.
Can you imagine the fear of the soldiers as they realize they are in the city of the enemy,
captured by a supernatural blindness? And then Elisha tells the King not to kill them, to feed
them and send them back home. Their eyes were not just opened to reveal their defeat. Their
eyes were opened to show them the power of God.
You may be facing an enemy, or the cliff on the side of a mountain that you're traveling, or it
may just be a dark and stormy night... Whatever fear you are facing, God will not leave you to
to it. Ask Him to open your eyes. He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a
sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians from prison. His counsel? "Do not be anxious about
anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests
to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
Father,
When David was seized by the Philistines in Gath, he sang, "When I am afraid, I will put my
trust in You. I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?
What can mere mortals do to me?" (Psalm 56:3-4). Fear is literally a part of our created
chemistry to warn us of danger and prepare us for fight or flight, so thank you for fear, for the
warning system you gave us, and its benefits to our survival. Other times, Father, fear gets a
foothold in our minds. Thank you that we can put our trust in You when we don't understand,
and that You are with us and for us. We can bring all our fears, real or imagined, to You. I ask
that You open our eyes. Let us see where You are working, where we need to pay attention, and
what we should do in response to our fear.
Even when I don't see it, You're working
Even when I don't feel it, You're working
You never stop, You never stop working
That is Who You are.
I pray that, like Elisha, that our prayers also open the eyes of those who need to see Jesus.
Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the Darkness,
And Peace on a dark and stormy night.
