Wednesday 25 January 2012

From Mark 4: ‘Late that day he said to them, "Let's go across to the other side." They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. 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?

Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?"’

Somebody shared this in my Lifegroup last night. It was a great reminder to me (and probably a number of others in the room), about how quickly we start panicking/ jumping ship/ doubting/ getting annoyed at God because of our circumstances.

Now… my initial thought would be: if I was in a boat with Jesus Christ, I’d be feeling pretty damn safe. I like boats at the best of times; but a trip out on the open waters with my Saviour would be pretty awesome.

And then I realised, like a fool, that I am as much with Him now as they were back on those waters, way back then. When situations don’t pan out how I’d imagined they would or an area of my life feels like it’s taking a beating, I’m quick to doubt the calmness of the waters and end up splashing about like a drowning/doubting Thomas.

He asks us in those moments: ‘Do you really have any faith in me at all?’

With a mouthful of salt water, it’s hard to say yes, isn’t it? If He could stop winds and waves in a slight utterance, then our inner turmoil should be fairly straight forward to deal with.

Just keep trusting, no matter what.