We understand, because we’ve suffered through storms ourselves
By Dean Collins
I have mixed thoughts about storms. If they are mild and they don’t bring real danger to anyone, then experiencing some rain, snow, wind, and even a little hail is fine. But big storms that threaten homes and lives create fear and anxiety for many. I assume storms are a part of the consequences of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. The consequences of sin, as with bad storms, always wreak havoc.
We have all experienced real storms and we have all used the word storm as a metaphor to describe abrupt and long-term hardships. Some of our storms involve our health, our work, our jobs, and our finances. They may be specific to us or sometimes are national or even global, like our recent pandemic. Storms bring uncertainty, and uncertainty brings anxiety.
‘We’re going to drown!’
In both the fourth and sixth chapters of Mark, we watch the disciples go through two different storms. It is a little difficult to discern how close these experiences were to each other. Maybe the second one was worse than the first one. You would think in the second storm the disciples would have been stronger in their faith. We tend to tell each other as much. How many times have you heard or said something like this: “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. These experiences just make you stronger. God is using this to prepare you for the next thing.” And on and on. Apparently, that logic didn’t apply to the disciples. If it had, they should have been more relaxed and filled with more faith in round two!
In the first storm recorded by Mark, Jesus is with the disciples. It seems that having Jesus with us should be enough, but the disciples were not convinced because Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the boat. They woke Jesus up by shouting at him, even questioning his care for them. I don’t know if Jesus ever takes a nap in Heaven, but I know I have shouted at him a few times with words similar to those the disciples used: “Don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
And drowning is a metaphor we use as well. We are drowning in sorrow, in grief, in debt, and on and on. “Jesus, wake up and help us” is our frequent prayer.
Jesus asked the disciples about the location of their faith and wondered why they were afraid. Jesus often asks me the same thing.
‘Take courage! I am here’
In the second storm, the disciples did exactly what Jesus told them to do. Mark writes that Jesus insisted they get in the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida. Are we to suppose that Jesus didn’t know the weather report? There was no weather channel back in the day. Or did Jesus know he was sending them into a storm? They sailed off, and he climbed a mountain to pray.
I suspect you have noticed that while we are sailing or traveling through life, we often come upon unexpected storms. And as humans, we experience moments of fear. Jesus was involved in the creation of the human body and all of its systems, so he is well aware of how we are wired. He calls us to trust him, to lean on him, and to come to him with our fears and concerns. The numerous instructions in scripture not to fear are there because God knows we do fear and he wants to help us in our seasons of anxiety.
When the disciples saw Jesus walking toward them on the water during the storm, they were again terrified. This time it was likely the ghost-like vision as much as the winds and the waves that sent them into full-on panic. They cried out in terror and Jesus replied, “Take courage! I am here!”
They were amazed when he stepped into the boat and the wind and the waves were once again peaceful. Their response: “Even the wind and the waves obey him.”
‘He will do it again’
Shelly Giglio recently posted something on Instagram I think relates to the storms the disciples faced, as well as to ours. “So far I’ve made it through 100 percent of my most difficult moments,” she wrote. “That’s a pretty stunning statistic. So instead of despair and depression, I want to choose trust and joy in the hardest days. I want to believe that if God has brought me through so far He will do it again.”
Maybe that is what Jesus was hoping his disciples then and his followers now would understand. He is with us in every situation. His proximity is always close, even when it feels otherwise. If we are here now, then he has gotten us through thus far. It may or may not have been how we imagined it or how we would have chosen, yet he got us through.
The apostle Paul said it this way: “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6).
God is not finished with you yet. He will complete his work in you when it’s time, and all of the results won’t be known until he comes again. Storms come and storms go. It is good to know that Jesus will bring us through all of them!
Your time with God’s Word
Mark 4:35-41; 6:45-52 NLT
Photo by Ray Bilcliff at www.pexels.com
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