"Now when they had left the multitude, they
took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with
Him." Mark 4:36
Jesus and His disciples are headed straight into a storm. This storm is going to test the faith of the disciples. It is going to teach them once again of the almighty power of God, the Lord of creation. They will be shaken by what they encounter. They will learn a multitude of hard lessons in a short amount of time. Storms are never easy to go through. Most of us dread the storms of life.
I am sure that we have all heard numerous people share their stories about the storms that they have been through. There are many kinds of storms, and they affect all of us differently. However, I would like to take our eyes off of ourselves for a moment. The one drawback that can happen to us when we are in a storm is that we become very self-centered. We begin to believe that no one has it as bad as we do. We become fixated on our pain and discomfort. We relate everything that is going on around us to our personal crisis. We wonder why others don't see things the way we see them. What we fail to realize is that there are "other little boats" that are affected by our storm. In our passage, we do not know who was in these other little boats, but they experienced the wind and the waves as much as the disciples. They were in a crisis as well. We can imagine what kind of fear and anxiety had crept into their hearts.
I believe that God is calling on each of us to recognize the others that are caught up in our storm. Some of you have spouses, children, family, friends, and coworkers that have experienced the waves of your storm. They have been taking on water and felt like they were going under, but you didn't notice. You were understandably so caught up with what was swirling around you that you could not hear their cries. I would like to challenge you today to listen over the noise of the howling wind and hear their frightened voices. Look over at their little boat and recognize the difficulty of their situation. Then, once you have seen and heard them, ask God to calm not only the storm for your sake but for theirs as well. Reach outside of yourself and love those in the other little boats. Find the peace of God together!
Jesus and His disciples are headed straight into a storm. This storm is going to test the faith of the disciples. It is going to teach them once again of the almighty power of God, the Lord of creation. They will be shaken by what they encounter. They will learn a multitude of hard lessons in a short amount of time. Storms are never easy to go through. Most of us dread the storms of life.
I am sure that we have all heard numerous people share their stories about the storms that they have been through. There are many kinds of storms, and they affect all of us differently. However, I would like to take our eyes off of ourselves for a moment. The one drawback that can happen to us when we are in a storm is that we become very self-centered. We begin to believe that no one has it as bad as we do. We become fixated on our pain and discomfort. We relate everything that is going on around us to our personal crisis. We wonder why others don't see things the way we see them. What we fail to realize is that there are "other little boats" that are affected by our storm. In our passage, we do not know who was in these other little boats, but they experienced the wind and the waves as much as the disciples. They were in a crisis as well. We can imagine what kind of fear and anxiety had crept into their hearts.
I believe that God is calling on each of us to recognize the others that are caught up in our storm. Some of you have spouses, children, family, friends, and coworkers that have experienced the waves of your storm. They have been taking on water and felt like they were going under, but you didn't notice. You were understandably so caught up with what was swirling around you that you could not hear their cries. I would like to challenge you today to listen over the noise of the howling wind and hear their frightened voices. Look over at their little boat and recognize the difficulty of their situation. Then, once you have seen and heard them, ask God to calm not only the storm for your sake but for theirs as well. Reach outside of yourself and love those in the other little boats. Find the peace of God together!
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