Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” … A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?” [Mark 4:35,37-38 (MSG)]
They were sailing in the Sea of Galilee, a body of water notorious for sudden violent storms. At least four of the disciples were fishermen; did none of them question Jesus about the possibility of squalls or rough waters? Jesus, being God and omniscient, surely knew a storm was brewing and yet He told the men to take the boat across the sea. As the squall came rolling in, the disciples fought the waves. While they frantically reefed the sails and bailed water, Jesus calmly slept on a cushion in the boat’s stern. To the terrified disciples it seemed as if He didn’t care that they were going to drown.
In another Sea of Galilee incident, Jesus sent the disciples across the lake while He stayed back and prayed in the hills. A storm arrived when the boat was several miles from shore. While the men struggled to keep the boat afloat as it was being battered by waves, I wonder if they felt abandoned by their teacher. Jesus suddenly appeared and, while walking on the water, came toward them. Instead of being relieved by his presence, the disciples, sure they were seeing a ghost, were terrified. Yet, again, Jesus calmed the storm.
Sometimes it seems as if God sends us into troubled waters and then abandons us; other times it seems as He’s sleeping on the job while we’re struggling to keep afloat. Rest assured; He’ll never abandon us. He always knows what’s happening and how the story will end. Jesus awoke and calmed the storm for the disciples and God will calm our storms, provide a life preserver or teach us to swim. While we might not be able to walk on water as did Peter, God will empower us to walk through the troubled waters of life. Although smooth sailing is not guaranteed, God’s presence in the storms is!
Living in a nation where we worship freely and can both possess and read the Bible, we can easily get complacent and forget that Satan is trying to defeat the spread of the gospel message. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, those Gideon Bibles we find in our hotel rooms are becoming an endangered species. In this era of political correctness and inclusiveness, hotels want to avoid offending people of other faiths or no faith at all. Two years ago, for example, citing “diversity” reasons, the Travelodge chain in the United Kingdom removed Bibles from all of its rooms. Last year, the Freedom from Religion Foundation asked fifteen major hotel companies to keep Bibles out of hotel rooms. With threats of lawsuits, they succeeded in convincing hotels operated by some state universities in Arizona, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa to do just that. The FFRF has also printed a sticker reading, “Warning: Literal belief in this book may endanger your health and life.” They encourage their supporters to place the stickers on any hotel room Bible they find.
As I looked through my basket of Christmas cards, I thought of all the people who have passed through my life. Contained in that basket is a fair amount of sorrow and misfortune—divorce, heart failure, assorted diseases, surgeries (some successful and others not), heartbreak, disappointment, cancer, mental illness, addiction, paralysis, birth defects, financial difficulty, and loss. Yet, within that basket, I also find hope, faith, resilience, peace, joy, perseverance, strength and love. There are children who defied the odds, families facing tremendous challenges with great courage, people who’ve forgiven the unforgiveable, widows and widowers meeting their new normal with confidence, hurt people determined to heal, caregivers finding strength to continue when many would quit, parents prayerfully waiting for prodigals to return, and people who can still laugh in the face of adversity.
