Perspective on the Storm.
“Don’t you care that we might drown?” Mark 4:38
I don’t fear the wind and water like I used to.
For in my life the water and wind is relatively calm most of the time. Oh, my life has had its moments of doubt and pain but for the most part, I have never weathered a severe storm. I've had breakups; been realtively poor and had to work extremely hard to get ahead; lost a love one to cancer and faced the simple storms of life.
Perhaps you could say I am blessed, if that is the right way to say it. I have been relatively successful in most anything I have attempted; I am deeply in love with my wife; and I have a family whom I love and loves me; and I have never been hungry for longer than a few hours.
The disciples were on their way across the Sea of Galiee. It was a typical journey, epsecially for folks that were used to the water, yet they found themselves afraid. Afraid that God didn't care. Perhaps this is why Jesus was able to catch some shut-eye. It wasn't that big of a deal. The journey wasn't that long and this storm wasn't going to consume them.
The wind and the water in the storms of life of are inevitable. I mean if we are going to be on the boat and out at sea of life the reality is that we are going to face some wind and water. In light of something like Rwanda in 1994 or the tsunami in recent years where folks must have wondered if God was sleeeping, this wasn't a severe storm. And most of our storms aren't-- they just feel like it at times.
We are going to get a little chaffed and wet in life. It is part of living. It’s a part of being in the boat out on the sea as we make our transitions from one place to another.
I have come to a place in my life where the wind and the water don’t bother me as much as they used to. It’s not the wind and the water that I often fear for I have learned that I am mostly safe.
When being blasted by the harsh winds and the spray of chilled water it is easy to assume that for whatever reason that God doesn’t seem to care; that God is sleeping while we are faced with what feels like a potential drowning.
The fear that strikes me is that I get a sense that God doesn’t care.
As the wind and water sting my face I want to awaken God by screaming, “Don’t you care?”
I want to know that God cares.
Sometimes God awakens from a calm rest only to rebuke the winds so that I can know that God cares. It is not so much that God saves me from the storm but God does so to assure me that God cares.
Just because God is snoozing doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care, it just may mean that God isn’t concerned or troubled by the wind and water-- and perhaps I shouldn’t be.
I need to be reminded that God truly cares and if God is relaxed enough in the situation to take a nap perhaps this is an indication that I can chill-out as well. I need to remember that God is in the boat with me and to trust that reality.
If God can rest, so can I.
11 Comments:
"If God can rest...so can I"
I don't want to say I've had a stormy life because compared to some, it's been smooth sailing. But there have been tragic moments where I have wondered if God cared. I never considered that that God may be nearby, just resting.
But what about times when a person cries out for God and He allows evil to take place? Like a fourteen year old girl being raped by two men? That's hard for me to understand and I think I still hold a grudge against God for some of the things he's allowed.
I believe God cares, but I don't always see it.
This passage has always bothered me...because of the rebuke Jesus gives his disciples. Doesn't God want me to come when I am afraid, even if the fear is out of proportion? Like a parent comforting their child who has had a nightmare.... mec
(I couldn't comment earler for some reason, the word verification was all screwed up. So I also included this comment in my own blog...)
Because we cannot see God face to face, it is hard at times when we are struggling to know if God is concerned about our suffering. And even though we can find comfort in the fact that He sees the bigger picture and the plan He has for us, us meek humans only see the situation at hand and wish to be out of it. "Don't you care?!" I've screamed that more times than I can count. And when I reach the other side, I can see that God was with me the whole time, and He had a plan. And I love that He allows us to question Him even still, even when He always proves to know what He's doing by allowing us our trials.
"Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Mark 4:40
I'm trying Lord, I'm trying.....
I think God's greatest desire for us is to "trust Him". And all those things... doubt, fear, worry... all demonstrate our lack of trust, and potentially our lack of understanding of our relationship with God. More than anything, He's telling us, don't fear, I am with you always.
No matter what we're going through, we know eventually everything will be OK. What greater promise can anyone hold to? What can bring us more peace? ... to know that everything will be OK is the essence of life itself.
It's all so different when you have children. It's not about the fears you have for yourself, it's about the fears you have for your children. How can you trust a God who allows innocent children to suffer disease and terminal illness and even worse?
I used to trust God a lot more before I had children than I do now. When I see my neighbor's daughter dying before she even gets to go to her senior prom, it's really hard to find a reason to trust God. How will that ever be okay for those parents?
Anonymous #2, I know it can seem so trite when someone says that God has a plan in situations when a child is killed. I am so sorry for your neighbor's loss, and everyone who was affected. This is definitely one of my worst fears, losing one of my children. I did lose a child once, to stillbirth. And I do not pretend that is anything like losing a child you've loved for 17 years. But I had hopes and dreams for that child that was taken from me so suddenly and unexpectedly. But through that, I came to some realizations. I came back to the Lord several months before I got pregnant with that third child. And when I lost him, I had the Lord to lean on, even when I was screaming, WHY? And I came to understand that our children are really not our own. They belong to God. Everything we have has come from God. Our children are put in our care so that we can keep them safe and taken care of, we can teach them about life and values, we can raise them to the best of our abilities, and we can let them go into the world when they are ready. I also believe that everyone and everything has a purpose. Some people's purpose's are fulfilled in shorter amount of times. Many life changes occurred for me as a result of my third son, and I believe that this was the Lord's work. Of course I wish my son had not died, but I know it was God's will for the events and changes that took place.
Think of how many people this girl must have touched in her lifetime. If she had never been here to begin with, think of how life would have been altered. As painful as losing a child can be, I believe that her life served a great purpose, and the Lord was able to bring her back home. And her death may be serving a purpose too. We do not know. These things do not reveal themselves immediately, but become apparent when we least expect it. It takes a cold winter to develop into spring, and it takes suffering to create growth.
Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. I appreciate the perspective. I believe that God is with us when we suffer and that perhaps God may be suffering with us. My hope is that God is always in the boat-- somehow God is in it.
I need this hope and I need God, even when I wonder.
Thanks!
Thanks for the encouragement... I've been totally blowing it all week and being anxious over nothing all-that-important...
I wrote a whole essay once on this passage. Basically it was very similar to your view (what a surprise). Jesus said that they would go over in the boat.
Done deal.
All the clatter along the way doesn't alter the fact that the Living Word has spoken Word.
"Let us go over to the other side"
Word.
Same mouth calms the sea. No difference. It was never in question.
With us in is not in question either. I may die tragically tomorrow...but it becomes comedy when I am raised up and made like Him right after.
None of us is going to get out of this alive no matter what we face. The only thing is that isn't the end of your story or mine.
It's just part fo the bigger story, just as Jesus sleeping in the boat is just one small snapshot.
Our time on this earth, is about life and death. We begin with the cradle, we have the time in between, then the grave.
We are born to decide, What will we do with this man called Jesus. If we decide that, yes He is the Lord God Himself who came and died for our sins, and if you will believe John 3:16 and pray and ask God to come into your heart, forgive you of your sins and to save your soul, God will do exactly as He says. He will see that you never see death and will abide with Him forever and ever for all eternity. We can recieve or reject Him. The decision is up to us. That is the reason we are here. When we pray Jesus comes into our heart and abides.
As surely as He was in the boat and his disciples were safe because they were in the presence of the Savior, we likewise will forever have no fear of tomorrow. God loves us and all the trials in this life cannot touch our security as we are safe in the arms of Our Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ.
Our life on the earth,is a short span compaired to our time in eternity.
Hell will be full of people who have failed to go to Heaven, simply because they did not ask to go to heaven. Becasue they would not say, Lord save me, I perish.
Jesus is the Master of Storms in this life. Cradle yourself and enjoy sweet peace in the midst of the stormy sea. Romans 10; 9.10
After reading the comments, I am amazed that so many people have made the statement that God was snoozing and He was sleeping. God, does not snooze nor does He sleep. Jesus on this earth was very much a man and He was also God. Jesus grew tired as a man and He fell asleep on the ship. When He heard the voice of His fellowmen calling Him.........The God of Our Universe came into action. A man could have commanded the waves to be still and for the wind to cease and nothing would have happened. Only the voice of God almighty has the power to command and to have all things subject to Him. Jesus Christ walked this earth as a man, entered this world as a baby........yet He was God. Cannot figure that out? God doesnot require much of you..... Just believe it........John 3:16........God loved you so much, that He sent Jesus to come into this world, that if you would believe in Him, that you wouldnot perish but have everlasting life. That is a promise.......read it....claim that promise NOW.
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