calm through the storm

There’s a lot going on around me this semester, and a lot going on in me; I’m pretty sure I’m going to look back on this semester years from know and be so confused about how I survived. In many ways I feel like the disciples as the storm approaches and they’re out at sea in Mark 4:35-41. The waves are really strong, they’ve actually started to come up into the boat and the wind is starting to pick up, and Jesus is asleep. Asleep. Well until the disciples wake Him up, saying “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus was, and is, the Son of God. He could have stopped the waves; He could have chosen not to sleep, but He didn’t. He was sleep because despite the roughness of the seas, there was nothing for the disciples to be afraid of. Jesus wasn’t pacing wondering if they were going to make it, he was fast asleep on a rocking boat. In fact, once the disciples wake Jesus up, He calms the sea, ends the storm and says to the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

I’ve seen God move mountains in my life, and the lives of the people around me. I have no doubt that Jesus is alive and on the move, so why do I focus on the storm instead of my Savior? My God is working all things for my good, my God is mighty to save, my God can calm storms; the second I start to forget how powerful and good my God is, I become just like the disciples who felt the need to wake Jesus just to be reminded that He wasn’t going to let them die. He isn’t going to leave or forsake me; He’s committed, in it for the long haul.  This doesn’t mean that life is a walk through a field of daisies or a cheesy romantic comedy where the girl and the guy always end up together; life is life, it will be hard, in fact Jesus tells us that. But, I live in the reality of a Jesus who is already victorious and a God who good, so good in fact that I can’t even comprehend His goodness. In this season of constant change, uncertainty and busyness, I pray that I remember how good and powerful God is, that He is in control, even when scary things are happening. I pray that I can find His peace and not try to create my own.