Absorbed in their efforts to save themselves, they had forgotten that Jesus was on board. ~Desire of Ages, p. 334
It's a familiar story. Jesus steps into a boat and asks His disciples to take Him to the other side of the lake so He can rest a while from the demands of a multitude desperate for His healing. He falls asleep almost instantly, weariness overcoming Him, and into a sleep so deep and sound that the sudden storm cannot wake Him.
I've been out on the Mediterranean Sea when the waves were choppy but it was a clear day and while the boat tipped from side to side, there was no danger of it tipping over or even filling with water. This, however, was not the case on that dark night. The disciples "were in real danger" (Luke 8:23) in this terrible storm that came up so suddenly (Matthew 8:24) as "high waves began to break into the boat until it was nearly full of water" (Mark 4:37).
Seasoned fishermen as they were, they could not save themselves in this frightening storm. They struggled to bail the water out and keep the boat from sinking, doing all in their own efforts that they could, but in a moment of panic they all realized they were going to drown. The storm was too strong and they were too weak.
A couple of days ago a friend and I headed to the coast for a few hours of relaxation after a hectic week. She with a building renovation project for her school for refugee children and I after a three day camp overseeing 50 teenagers, we were both grateful for the call of the sea and its relaxing turquoise blues. After spreading our towels out on the pebbled shore, we made our way down to the water.
The day before, I had been with the 50 teenagers at the sea about 30 minutes north of where I now was. The unusual summer breeze that kept us cool on our campus just outside Beirut now whipped up the shore with crashing surf and waves that made it hard to keep our balance as they pummeled the rocks. I had joined the brave ones in the water, but even though I'd swam out past the first set of waves, the giant waves that crashed over my head filled me with more salt water than I cared for so I soon sat back on the shore.
Thinking it would be the same at the spot we now were, and disregarding the fact that there was nobody else in the water, and only a couple people on the beach, I once again swam out a little past the first set of crashing waves. The day before, my feet were always touching the sea floor but now I suddenly found I could no longer feel the bottom. Then things happened all at once.
I bobbed up and over a couple of large waves but started to feel uneasy and when I turned to look to shore I realized I was further out than I had planned. My friend was about the same distance out but not so close to me and I decided I wanted to head back to shore. I faced the shore and began to swim.
Within a moment, I realized I wasn't getting anywhere nearer to the shore. I could feel a strong current holding me in place so that my attempts to propel myself through the water were helpless. I began to panic even as I thought about what I should do. I remembered reading about how you should swim parallel to the shore rather than tiring yourself out trying to fight a current, so I turned to face parallel but even then the current kept me from moving anywhere, or so it seemed.
As the panic grew stronger and I tried to calm down even as I knew I could not anchor myself to the sea's pebbled floor nor pull myself out of the water by my own strength, I had a moment of lucidity. Let the waves push you to shore.
I knew that when the waves crashed on the shore, they pushed in their wake small stones, depositing them on the shore even as they rushed back out to sea. As a huge wave came up behind me, I instinctively allowed it to push me towards the shore, not fighting it, but allowing it to have its way in propelling me forwards. Salt water was up my nose, I couldn't see anything as the wave crashed over me, and I was terrified, but I knew I was closer to shore than I was a moment before.
A second wave came immediately behind it and this one pushed me into waters where I could get my footing. My knee was bruised from crashing against the shore, I was coughing out more salt water than I'd swallowed in years, and my feet hurt from the rougher stones but I hastily stumbled up the rocky shore until I could collapse beyond the reach of the waves' strength. A flashback of a similar experience from 20 years ago came to mind and I sent up a silent prayer of thanks to a Father Who cared enough about me to rescue me from my stupidity.
There's a challenge I'm facing in my life right now and I have no idea how it will be resolved. In some ways, it feels like those crashing waves that the disciples faced thousands of years ago that were ready to drown them, or the current that threatened to pull me out to sea just a couple of days ago. As I read the chapter Peace, Be Still, I was struck by that single sentence. The disciples had forgotten Who was with them.
I wonder how things would have been different if they had remembered Jesus right away instead of doing all they could in their own efforts first. If, at the first sign of a storm, they had looked for Jesus and told Him, We're afraid, and seen Him calm the storm immediately. I tend to be somewhat of a worrywart and when I was younger, my mother would tell me, Don't worry about something before it's happened, because then you've wasted all the effort. If the disciples had gone to Jesus the moment the storm became bigger than they could handle, they would have saved all their worry and panic and wearisome efforts because Jesus would have solved their problem then rather than after they had tired themselves out.
Perhaps this is how my life is too. Perhaps I'm so absorbed in my own efforts to sort out my dilemma that I have forgotten Who is with me. Jesus trusted His Father implicitly; He could sleep in a terrible storm. Me, on the other hand, finds it easier to worry and cry and spend my time talking to every person around me in an attempt to find a solution rather than simply asking the One Who knows me best to help me find a solution.
There were other boats on the sea that night. Other boats whose occupants were also in danger of drowning. The moment the sea was still, they too saw the miracle of Jesus' power to calm the storm. When I let Jesus calm the storm of my life, there may be others close by who are watching me and seeing the storm settle may be a testimony to them to also let Jesus in their lives to calm their storms.
It was in faith--faith in God's love and care--that Jesus rested. . .As Jesus rested by faith in the Father's care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour. . .Living faith in the Redeemer will smooth the sea of life, and will deliver us from danger in the way that He knows to be best. ~Desire of Ages p. 336
