Hebrews tells us that the Bible is a living, active thing. I’m reminded of this every time a passage of Scripture I’ve ready a hundred times before pops out at my in a new way. This week, that passage was Mark 4:35-41.
I remember learning this story in Sunday School. With Flannelgraph and everything. The story goes like this:
Jesus is in a boat with the Twelve. He’d been teaching and healing people and so once they were in the boat and had put out to sea, Jesus went to the stern, lay down on a cushion, and took a nap. Sometime later, a storm starts blowing across the sea, and boat starts to take on water. Naturally, the Twelve are concerned. Meanwhile, Jesus is sleeping through the whole thing. So his friends gently wake Him up, offer Him a cup of tea…
No, wait, that’s not right. “Teacher!” they yell, waking Him up, “don’t you care that we’re going to die?”
Now, I wasn’t there, but that does seem a little dramatic. After all, Jesus was still sleeping soundly until He was rudely awakened by their noise, so it couldn’t have been that bad, right?
Here’s where I was when the Spirit called my attention to the scene. Jesus’ friends were in a tough situation. They were worried. They were afraid. But Jesus was right there with them, they were fine!
The Spirit nudged me. I realized that, like Jesus’ friends, I’ve been asking God the same thing: “Don’t You care?” “Aren’t You going to keep Your promise?” “Are You paying attention to what’s going on here?”
And just like Jesus with His friends, immediately, He calmed my storm. He hasn’t fixed my problem yet, but in a way that only He can, He poured His peace into my heart. He calmed the storm in my mind so I could think more clearly. He told the voice of fear in my mind and heart to “Be Silent!”
And then, He asked me exactly what Jesus asked His friends: “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” It wasn’t a rebuke - He wasn’t yelling at me, He wasn’t mad at me. It was a gentle question, coming from a place of compassion and love.
He brought to mind the other times I’ve asked Him the exact same questions. He reminded me that yes, He does care yes, He will take care of me. He reminded me that He’s right there with me in my storm.
”Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
This was the gentle reminder I needed that I do have faith. A lot of it actually. As God continues to stretch and grow that faith, He’s allowed many storms to come up in my life. It’s scary, but my faith really has grown as He’s sat in the boat with me, and then calmed my storm, fixed my problem.
It’s in those storms that I’m reminded of the ways He’s calmed storms before and my faith reminds me that somehow, He’s going to do it this time too.
Maybe someday my faith will be so strong that I can just sit with Him and we can watch the storm together until it passes. But until then, He’s still the one the wind and waves obey.