Storms - Part 2
Josh Knipple continues where he left off on Saturday.
So now that we have established that we face storms in our lives and have hopefully come to the memory that Jesus is in the boat with us, let us think upon another detail here. Picture yourself in the boat as one of the disciples, as you are watching the others use pails to try to get all the water out. You see it is hopeless, fear is on your mind, but you keep looking to the back where Jesus lies peacefully. In your mind you remember how he just preformed miracles a few short hours prior. You have put your faith in Him, but what now? Death could be at your doorstep if He doesn't intervene. So you start to walk closer to where He lies, still amazed that He can just be sleeping.
How often in life does it feel that way. You know Jesus is with you, but there are moments where you sense God is just sleeping through all you are facing. Doesn’t He care. “My family is falling apart, my world is collapsing, my kid is addicted, and the list goes on and on.” Yet it feels that even as I cry out Jesus is just asleep. My prayers are hitting the ceiling. You ever feel that way?
You continue to walk closer to Him on the boat, and you hear his snore. Sound asleep. He looks so peaceful after such a long day. You know you need to wake him up, but in your mind you think I should let Him rest. Maybe my problems aren’t that big after all. Have you ever had a moment in life where you feel you are going through a storm, you know you need to turn to Jesus, but then as you go to, you talk yourself out of it. “He has wars he is dealing with, he has famines, he has other more pressing issues compared to my simple Josh Knipple prayers, I should probably just let him keep sleeping.” So instead of turning to Him, we try to figure it out on our own.
Think of it this way, our kids come home from school. They decide they want to bake something. Lindsey has just gotten home from work and is exhausted, really just needing to lay down for a few moments. So the girls take it upon themselves to try and make the cake. They know they need help, but mommy needs some rest. So they do their best, but in the meantime eggs get broken all over the floor, cake mix is everywhere, and the mess just seems to explode. Picture with me now Lindsey waking up, “girls why didn’t you ask me for help? Don’t you know I love helping you do what you can’t?” Innocently enough the girls simply respond with, “we didn't want to bother you, we thought you had bigger things to deal with.”
It may sound silly, even a little off from how you have read this story before but I would venture to say when storms happen in life we fall in one of these camps. Like I said yesterday, maybe you are in the camp that forgets Jesus is in the boat with you. Maybe you remember He is in the boat but your think He doesn’t care. Or how about the last one where you think He has bigger things to deal with than what you are facing. Now let’s take this one step further, I could see the boys just wanting to do it on their own to prove a point that they do not need help. How many of us are that way we think we can figure out life on our own, we don't need God’s help.
In all of this I hope and pray that as we face storms we will realize that God is not just some being sitting up in heaven looking down saying good luck. He is with us. He is in our midst, even in the storms with you.
Tomorrow we will look at the final part, Jesus calming the storms.
Make it a Master- -filled Monday! God is good…