What to do on a sinking ship?

Here is wisdom: If you can’t get out of the storm with Jesus, then be in the storm with Jesus.

Mark 4:35 “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  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.  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.”

i’m sure the disciples were excited to see what would happen on “the other side.”  What they probably did not expect was a raging storm!  When they were in the middle, i sincerely doubt the disciples were nearly as excited about “the other side” as they were at the beginning. The closer they got to their destination, the more foreboding the wind and waves became.

God often calls us to launch out to a new destination, and He rarely gives us a laid out plan of the entire trip.  We leave the security of where we are and start out for “the other side” … most of us don’t have a vision of where we’re going, neither do most of us enjoy where we are on the way to where we’re going.  It is often in the middle where we encounter our storms… the testing place, the proving grounds.

The storm the disciples encountered in Mark 4:37 was no spring storm, it was of hurricane proportions!  It’s important also to know these were fishermen, they spent their life on the water and were not easily shaken by a storm.  But this was not any normal storm! The wind absolutely howled, and the water was filling the boat.  Amazingly, with the storm going full force … Jesus was asleep in the stern (Mark 4:38).   Do you ever feel like that?  Your life feels to be in the middle of terrible circumstances, you’re sure your boat is sinking, and it appears God is asleep … you might even yell at Him and even want to pick a fight, saying, “Don’t you even care that I’m dying here?!”  You spent time with Him trying to feel His presence… and nothing.  You prayed and fasted, threw yourself on the floor screaming and crying, using up an entire box of tissue… and nothing.  You searched for an answer, but no matter how hard you struggled against the wind and waves, the storm raged on and you didn’t know what to do.  Some call it the “dark night of the soul”.

At times like these, when it looks like the boat is sinking and we’re stuck in the middle, it is time for faith.  Easy to say, you say, but carefully consider, what are your options at that point?  Is He God or not?   And when He said, “Let’s go to the other side”, we must employ faith… God expects us to believe Him that if He said it, it will happen. If you spend your hours weeping and lashing out, the storm is the same. If you sit and do nothing, the storm is the same. Even if you did backflips up and down the street while declaring amazing things, it is highly likely the storm would be the same.

Jesus did calm the storm… but He also rebuked the disciples saying “How is it that you have no faith?”  Do you think He didn’t know, or was He asking the question in hopes they would question themselves? Of course, He knew, but they didn’t. It is vital to our future that we grow in faith, and growing in faith doesn’t happen because all things are always well with us.  We must learn to conquer our fear and press on to the other side.  It’s easy to enjoy our present situation when all things are rosey, but we’ve got to learn to enjoy where we are on the way to where we will be, possessing joy and peace in the midst of the storm as well as after it has passed on.

If you can’t get out of the storm with Jesus, then be in the storm with Jesus, and “let her ride” (Acts 27:15)!  Lean into the wind and trust God. Jesus will not forsake us, not now, or later. Let faith do it’s work.