There is a famous story about Jesus sleeping in a boat when a storm rises up and threatens to drown everyone aboard. His disciples wake Jesus who speaks to the storm, calming it, and rebuking his followers for their lack of faith.
It’s possible you’ve heard that story before. It’s a pretty famous Sunday School story. I’ve heard and read it dozens of times in my life. Probably over 100. I’ve written about it here and here. I just read it again the other day, and I noticed something I’ve never noticed before about the story:
Jesus and his disciples weren’t alone on the lake.
“So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed).” -Mark 4:36 NLT
It wasn’t a lone boat out on the water in danger of sinking. It was a series of boats with scores of other people in the same predicament. When Jesus calmed the storm for his followers – it wasn’t just the men in his own boat. Jesus calmed the storm for every other boat following him too.
It’s not just you and Jesus in the boat
We tend to think very individually about life. I think about me, and maybe my spouse and family. We don’t usually consider all the other people around us – friends, extended family, church members, school acquaintances, etc. It’s not just you and Jesus in your boat.
It’s very possible you are experiencing a storm in your life today. Something scary is taking place, threatening to turn your world upside down. If so, it’s not just you in danger, but every person in your boat or following close behind. For some of us, that might be a few people, but for others it could be hundreds or thousands of lives (think a mega-church scandal, etc).
So when you cry out to Jesus to calm the storm, he’s not just speaking to the events threatening your life, but he’s calming the storm threatening to tear apart the world of those in your boat or following close behind.
Whether they know it or not, when Jesus calms my storm, he clams the impending storm of those in my life.
What storm do you need calmed? Who else in your life will this impact?
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