“One day Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.”
Luke 8:22-24
One evening as my 50th birthday approached my husband asked “You’re not going to freak out over turning 50 are you?” My response to his questions was “Aside from wanting to take an extended vacation to Australia I wasn’t expecting to freak out about it.” Personally, I’m not really the type to freak out over the stuff of life. The same cannot be said for the guys on the boat with Jesus though.
The guys on the boat had been with Jesus for a while now; they had seen Him do some amazing things. They had even participated in some amazing things and they supposedly knew who He was. Despite all they had already witnessed and the fact that Jesus was sleeping soundly in the boat, they still freaked out over the waves caused by the storm.
I guess I could maybe understand Matthew freaking out - he was a tax collector after all and probably not used to being on the water, but what about the guys who fished for a living? They made a living on the water, one of them probably owned the boat they were on so, why were they in a panic?
Jesus calmed the storm with a word of rebuke and asked his friends about the state of their faith? It doesn’t look like He lectured them about trusting in Him or finding peace in their faith. That’s the great thing about Jesus He appreciates the honest cries of hearts. We can freak out if we must and we can just say His name. When we do He’ll either calm the storm or He’ll calm us and that calm will be so incredible that we will have a hard time understanding how just a minute ago we felt like we were about drown in life’s storm.
I’m not freaking out, but if you are - there is a supernatural calm on its way and that calm, that peace is something to be thankful for.
A Prayer
Father, you know that we humans can be prone to freaking out over life, even though we know you and have seen the amazing things You’ve done in the past. Thank you for hearing the cry of hearts when we freak out and for giving us peace and calm. In the name of Jesus, who can calm the storm with a word, we pray. Amen.
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