Sunday, May 16, 2010

Jesus Ain't Scared of your Storm

I'm sitting on a porch in Gulf Shores, AL watching a storm out over the ocean. From my vantage point...safe on my screened in porch...it's beautiful. Calming, even. Then I think about it would be like to be in the midst of the storm, and suddenly it doesn't seem all that wonderful.

The disciples found themselves in the midst of a storm. A big one, apparently. It was filling their boat and threatening to sink them. To put it lightly, they were in fear of drowning and they were freaking out. What about Jesus? Where was he? He was in the boat...sleeping. He was in the SAME boat, in the midst of the SAME storm, and he was asleep, while the other men were saying their last rites and writing farewell letters to their mommas. Someone finally decided it would be a good idea to let Jesus know they were all about to die, so they went to wake him. "Jesus! Wake up! Don't you know we're all about to drown??" Hahaha...I don't know why that strikes me funny, but it does. I mean, seriously, you're telling Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that he is about to drown at sea. Really? Jesus' reaction is priceless. "Hush! Be still." And the wind obeyed. Just like that. Then he turns to the men, and I can almost guarantee that he was irritated for having been woken up, and he says, "Why are you all such cowards? What are you afraid of? Don't you have ANY faith yet?" The Word doesn't elaborate on this statement. That's all it says. "Don't you yet have any faith?" To what was he referring when he said that? Faith in what? Faith about what? I don't think it was faith in Jesus ability to calm the storm. He was sleeping in the midst of it, if not unaware it was happening, certainly unconcerned. I think what he meant was this, "Why are you afraid our boat is going to sink. Don't you know that I am in it? You are safe in the storm as long as I am in your boat." And just because I think Jesus had a great sense of humor, I believe he probably said, "Duh" at the end.

And all of this brings me to my point...finally. Just because you are in the midst of the storm, doesn't mean Jesus isn't right there with you. If you think that Jesus is unconcerned about the waves, it's probably because he is. He is fully confident that as long as you keep in his boat, you will come through the storm safe and sound and with greater faith than you had going into it. The bible tells us that after Jesus calmed the sea, the disciples were terrified that even the winds obeyed him. Good gosh, men! You are scared when it's windy and you're scared when it's not! Wouldn't you be much better to simply rest in the midst of it, knowing the One who holds you will keep you? Jesus calming the sea is His mercy for us. I'm thankful for those times in my life when he has calmed the seas,and my fears right along with them. But there is a time when we need our faith strenghtened. There is a time when we need our courage to be built. I hope in those times, I will hunker down and ride it out, knowing that if Jesus is in my boat I can't help but come out on the other side.