Mark 4: 35-41 (NLT)
As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”
Like the disciples, we often find ourselves at the mercy of life’s storms – even as Jesus is close. We often wonder why we experience such tumultuous periods – where the waves and winds of life seem to pummel us to death. The slicing rains stab at our burning eyes, blurring our vision. The lightning jabs its sharp, fiery claws at us and the thunder bursts our ears. It’s no literal storm usually – But things like addiction, anger, frustration, ill-tempered co-workers, unmet expectations in a marriage, a flat tire, an eviction notice, no money in the bank. Whatever form it takes, it beats us like a storm.
And what makes the storm unbearable is this: Jesus sits there with us… And sleeps! Or so we think. Just as the disciples did. When we allow Jesus to change our perceptions, as we have done over the past month, we witness a small part of what Jesus is all about. Jesus was resting – at peace with God. Even in the midst of the squall. His faith was in the Father. Completely. He saw the eternal while we, and the disciples, see the corporeal. And that’s why he didn’t fear.
When Jesus rose to calm, or overpower, the physical world, the disciples were in awe. It increased their faith. The storm made them stronger. Just as it can do for us. Think about the last time you really grew in your relationship with Jesus. Was it during an uneventful time or during a storm? My growth is almost always during the storms – when I’m forced to admit my weakness and reach out for help.
We don’t always understand who God is or what He is doing and that’s okay! My thought mirrors that of Donald Miller, who wrote, “It comforts me to think we are created beings, the thing that created us would have to be greater than us, so much greater, in fact, that we would not be able to understand it.”
