the storm

They should have known better. If Jesus was on board, the ship would not sink and they would not all drown.

I am talking about the disciples in Matthew 8:23-27. They were in a boat in the sea when a huge storm came out of nowhere (actually, the storm probably came from God – at least He allowed it). When the waves began to crash over the sides of the boat, they panicked and ran to awaken Jesus, informing Him that they were all as good as dead. They should have known better.

Jesus wasn’t destined to drown. As long as He was in the boat, they were going to be OK. But they wanted Jesus to stop the storm, so He did. But He also rebuked them for being so afraid and for having so little faith. They didn’t care about that, they just cared that they were on calm waters again.

And that’s how it goes. We want an easy life. And sometimes Jesus calms the storm, despite the fact that we haven’t learned what we need to learn, we haven’t increased in our faith. We still haven’t learned the lesson of God getting us through the storm. We want Him to shortcut the process for us. So sometimes He does. But down the road, we will have to endure the storm again and again until we learn the lesson of trust.

He is powerful enough to stop the storm. And He is powerful enough to keep us safe through the storm.

Sometimes, we have to embrace the storm.