None of us are strangers to fear. It is either nipping at our toes or has gripped our hearts. Sometimes we get so used to it, or we fail to recognize its presence.
I went to my son’s former addiction rehab last night and attended the parents’ group. I have been praying for a number of the boys there. One mom caught my eye. It is her son that has been heavy on my heart. He is somewhere lost in his addictions which he has been struggling with for years. I wanted to ask the mom how her son was doing, but I did not need to. Worry and fear were etched into her face. I know that look, I have worn it myself when my own boy was lost in addiction. The fear for their very lives is an everyday event.
In Mark 4:35-41 we see that the day has come to an end and Jesus and the disciples have jumped into a boat. It had been a long day for Jesus teaching, crowds of people full of need pressing on every side. The boat and the prospect of getting to the other side was a welcome thought. Jesus, exhausted from his day, lays on a cushion at the back of the boat and falls asleep. The disciples find in short order they are dealing with a vicious storm that is threatening to overturn the boat! They do everything to try to steady the boat but know that this storm is beyond what they can navigate without Jesus’ intervention.
How often we find ourselves in this same predicament. We see the storm that is swirling all around us, we know that it is too much for us. We make our plans, we do what seems reasonable and wise, just like the disciples were doing in this story. They were experienced boaters, they know this sea and how prone it is to fast-approaching storms. They have seen it before.
There are many trials that come to each of us that are beyond our control, we cannot make all sick people well, we cannot make people get jobs, we cannot control the addict we love, nor can we fix the problems of other people as much as we would like to.
You know what is the problem that is causing fear to grip your heart or nip at your toes.
We have two choices. We can hold onto our fear and work our plan or we can do what the disciples did and call out in the middle of their fear and ask for His intervention.
In this passage, Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the waves and everything stopped. He spoke to the disciples first though and called it as He saw it “ oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?’.
If we choose to call out to Jesus in this same way, He does intervene, except it is not always as fast as we see in this story. I have seen fast interventions by Jesus in my life and I am familiar with the slow kind as well. Regardless, He asks us to not fear but trust in Him. And that my friend is one of two choices, we will either trust Him to help in this storm or we do not. We are given that freedom.
What does trust look like though? It is like this. Picture yourself on a pile of rocks in the middle of a large body of water and the waves are crashing around you. You cannot see a way off these rocks try as you may. You call out to God “ help me God, there is no way out of here!” He throws you a lifeline and it lands at your feet, what will you do? Do you leave it there or do grab on and let Him pull you into a new place even when you cannot see where in the world He is taking you. That is what trust is. There are many people who believe in God and say they pray but they never grab onto the lifeline and hold on.
He is trustworthy and He sees what you cannot. Whatever you face today, know that He is big enough.
