Katrina was such a catastrophic event, leaving a whole city homeless, that three years later, New Orleans is properly respectful and apprehensive of Gustav.  Many are no doubt just getting over their post-traumatic stress from the last go-around.  There is something about a monster storm that puts the fear of God in a person.

But fear of God and fear of dying, or losing everything, or just fear of the unknown are very different things. That kind of fear prevents one from trusting God, and it seems, that is the one thing he asks of us in  a storm.  I don't know, I think he's asking a lot. But look how Jesus deals with his disciples on the subject:

"Without warning a furious storm came up on the lake...The disciples woke Jesus, saying, 'Lord, save us! We're going to drown!'

He replied, 'You of little faith, why are you so afraid?'  Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the waves and it was completely calm." (Matt. 9:24-26)

Gustav's landfall has got a lot of people praying desperate prayers this morning.  I wish we had the kind of faith Jesus wants us to have.  Being human is a difficult thing.  You go through something painful, you pray, "Save me, Lord, keep me from this pain," and still the pain comes - and when God is apparently asleep, he says to us, "Trust me anyway."

It's a counter-intuitive thing to ask, like the husband who says, "Take me back, I'm different this time."  I mean, if he hadn't struggled through this business of putting on skin and walking through this sometimes stingingly harsh world, I'd probably have given up long ago.

For all of you in Gustav's path this morning, or in the path of some other unpredictable storm in life, Jesus' words are a challenge, "Trust me anyway." And when you've prayed your last prayer of faith, when you feel the fear coming on you again, know that many others who have gone through their own storms in life are praying for you.