There is a story recorded three times in the gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ calming a storm that was raging while the disciples were navigating a ship on the Sea of Galilee. My history teacher use to say, "If I say it once I think it's important. If I say it twice then I want you to learn something from it. But, if I say it three times it's gonna be on the test!" All of us are going to go through storms in our lives. And, the Lord is giving us something in this story that will help us get through these tests.
The first thing to notice is that their journey began smoothly. The storm wasn't raging when they entered the boat. It seems that storms come out of nowhere. They don't come when we are expecting them. Storms come when everything seems to be going well.
This storm was so bad that the water started to come in the boat. The disciples were scared! Here they are trying to get through this storm and feeling that they were going to sink and they ask the Lord a question that we will all ask Him at one point or another, "Lord, Don't you care that we are perishing?"
We go through troubles and heartaches and we turn and ask the Lord, "Don't you care that this is killing me?" And, just like He did with the disciples, He asks us, "Why are you so fearful? Why don't you have faith?"
The disciples in the story never answer Him. It's recorded that He asks them these two questions in all three accounts and in none of those accounts do the disciples answer His questions.
Christ was in the boat with them. He wasn't somewhere else watching them try to tread water; He was there the whole time. Christ was bigger than that dreadful storm! It took just one command- Peace. Be Still. Christ can calm the storm any time, but He allows it to continue for a reason; and, He never leaves us alone during the storms.
Some times uncertainty surrounds us and it seems that evil is winning. It is during these times that we must remember that Jesus Christ is a Just God. He said in John 14, "Let not your heart be troubled." When the waves are crashing and the winds are whipping and we feel the boat is about to sink, Christ is still with us saying, "Let not your heart be troubled."
We won't always know why the storm comes. We won't always understand the reason we must traverse such troubled pathways. We won't see the way Jesus Christ sees it. But, we can know that He is there, and He sees things far better than we do- He sees the past, the present, and the future. He sees the end of the storm and the results that come from it when we are still in the struggle.
In due time, Joy cometh in the morning.
