Over the last year Colorado has experienced fires, floods and mud. Most of us who live here have felt fairly confident that we wouldn’t experience natural disasters like the rest of the country does with earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. A lot of us felt somewhat exempt from those kinds of things. Then came the devastating fires and floods indiscriminately taking lives and over a thousand homes lost.
The reality is none of us are exempt from adversity regardless of where it comes from or when. During times like these where do we go for hope and what can we truly count on? Our response to these questions has a lot to do with what or who we place our hope in.
One day while the weather was calm Jesus told his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat… A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Mark 4:35-37
If you know the rest of the story they do make it safely to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The text says it was night and they were terrified. Yet, rest assured that when Jesus is in your boat and He says “go over to the other side” you’ll make it there. Jesus was in the boat with them, but that didn’t mean it would be fair weather, quite the contrary they sailed into a raging storm.
If Jesus was not spared the storm should we expect the sea to be any less rough for us? Even as the disciples’ fears swept over them in the darkness and they assumed the worst, the admiral of the Sea was right there with them all along.
As C.H. Spurgeon said, “Therefore whatever squalls may blow, faith will feel a blessed calm within. The Lord is always in the midst of the weather beaten fleet, so we may rejoice in Him. His ship has reached the haven and so will ours.”
Storms, fires, floods and mud may cause us to say, “Where are you Lord?” May we grasp the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
May your main pursuit in life be in knowing Him better and experiencing that He is enough for you in the midst of your journey wherever it takes you.
With Grace,
Mark
mark@startingoverworkshops.com
