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Faith During the Storm

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” --Mark 4:35-41


I wonder really how the disciples felt, being tossed about in a storm in their boat with the real possibility that they might die, being told in an infuriating fashion by Jesus afterwards something to the effect of, "Dude, relax. You're interrupting my nap." Let's remember that the disciples were fisherman and Jesus was not. The disciples knew much more about sailing and travel by boat than Jesus would have. 

The disciples likely knew people in their own lives who were lost to inclement weather while sailing. It must have been pretty eye popping for a sailing amateur like Jesus to rebuke THEM when he was sleeping during the whole thing to begin with! 

Mindfulness and calm are very popular and marketable concepts these days. You can spend money on subscriptions with apps that have names like "Headspace" and "Calm." Apps with guided meditations, music designed to help you fall asleep, ASMR(autonomous sensory meridian response)-rich recordings of people speaking in soothing ways---all to calm us down from our frenetic, anxious, busy and full lives. 

We all seem to be desperately searching for ways to end the "storm." Whether its breathing until we calm down, avoiding what is painful to begin with, or solving every problem we can find. We all find our own way to cope with anxiety, grief, or pain. 

Our story in Mark raises an important point for us to consider, and it isn't very obvious. When we pray to God, or when we desperately seek God's presence I think we expect that doing so will end whatever pain, or difficulty, or "storm" we are facing. We want the end of the storm to be brought by God the way Jesus rebuked the winds. 

But notice that Jesus also rebuked the disciples afterward. Being a disciple of Christ and following him in our lives does not mean that we will never face problems or storms. We are Christ followers in that we know that Christ is with us DURING the storm. The gift of faith isn't that following Christ will end all pain or cease all storms. The gift of faith is that we can have peace DURING any storm because we know that Christ is with us. Thanks be to God! I look forward to seeing you this Sunday.


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