Jesus is in My Boat. Now What?

Jesus is in My Boat.  Now What?

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Blog by Megann Graf

I don’t know about you, but I was comforted by the disciple’s response to Jesus in their boat.  (Mark 4:35-41)

 The disciples were the people who literally left their old lives and followed Jesus.  They physically walked with Him.  They audibly talked to Him.  They made a pretty bold choice to decide to commit their life’s work to spreading the gospel.  And yet, when they hit a storm, they were saying “Jesus, why the heck are you sleeping?  Why aren’t you doing anything.”  Okay, those weren’t their exact words, but they’re pretty close.  Even the disciples had doubts.  They were human.  They came to a storm, and they still had that “oh crap” moment of wondering what was going to happen and why Jesus wasn’t running out to save them. 

Ever have one of those moments? 

Ever wonder why it seems like Jesus is sleeping during your storm?

I have.  I do. 

And yet, Jesus was with them.  And when they came to Him, the first thing He did was calm the storm.  The very first thing he did was calm their storm.  Now, he didn’t transport them to another time and place.  No, they were, in fact, still in the same body of water.  They weren’t completely out of danger, but he calmed the waves that were crashing around them.  He gave them that peace of knowing that He was in control.  And then He asked them “why are you so timid and fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?” 

These were the men following Him and watching Him heal people and listening to his teachings.  They had behind the scenes footage of the Son of God!  I guess it wasn’t unfair of him to question why they had such distrust.  And I find it interesting that this little snippet of scripture doesn’t end with the disciples looking around at each other and saying, “oh right, we’re with Jesus, we’re good.”  No, it ends with them in awe and fear saying “who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey?”  They were speechless.
 If Jesus is in our boat, we’ve got to trust Him.  We have to believe that he will calm the storm, even if the storm he calms, is simply the one we have in our hearts.  Because, most likely, we will still be “out to sea”, so to speak.  He might not take away the circumstance we are in.  But, He will calm our storm.  And, I have experienced moments where I am in the middle of something that doesn’t seem right, and yet, I have peace.  I can’t explain it.  I am somewhat in awe, and a little fearful of what is still to come, and yet the waves are not swallowing me up.  I believe that is Jesus in my boat.  I wish I could say that I never question God.  I do in so many things.  And yet, deep down, there is this thing called faith.  It pulls at me and begs me to trust.  It’s that gut feeling that tells me that what is going on is so much greater than me.  I am so small, and He is so big.  The fact that he’d even be in my boat is amazing.  I’m sure I’ve taken him up some rivers he’d rather not see.  But there He was, in my storms, in my boat.  And He’s in yours too.