“Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” Mark 4:38-39 (NIV)
The storms of life always seem to take us by surprise and set us back.
We are nearly into the final month of 2014 and I can already think of several story lines in my own life and family that didn’t “turn out” the way I wanted them to so far this year.
If we’re honest we have to admit that we live in a world that doesn’t really turn out as we “expect it to.” We have dreams, goals and aspirations that seldom come to fruition as we intended and they can often be derailed by forces outside of our control.
One day in the first century the disciples of Jesus found themselves in a boat on the Sea of Galilee with a sleeping Savior. A storm blew in and they became fearful and hostile. They tried furiously to get the water out of the boat to save themselves while their Lord and Leader continued to sleep.
You might say they were more than disappointed in the Man who told them a few minutes earlier that they were going “to the other side” of the lake.
We can easily get into a major panic when storms blow into our lives. When it comes to my problems I would rather fight the storm than sleep in it. We’re really disappointed that the day, the month the year or the decade isn’t working out the way we wanted it to.
I’m sure in that moment of despair the disciples felt –
“I am all alone here and on my own.”
“I’m virtually invisible, no one else sees or cares.”
“I have to do it all myself.”
This is living in the “unreality” that I am the center of my own world. If I am in control then I have very much to fear. We can always find disappointment in our inability to “fix” the world let alone our small situations.
Disappointment takes over when we feel unable to correct our situation to our satisfaction.
What was Jesus doing sleeping while his friends and followers were scared and struggling?
Lessons from Jesus come in many ways and in many forms. If you listen to His comments in the context He says, after calming the storm, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
The obvious message here is the contrast between fear and faith. When we’re trusting a truly all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful Savior we have virtually nothing to fear. He says, “We’re going to the other side” of the lake – so it’s settled. We’re going to a safe place with Him no matter what current circumstances tell us.
I’m really disappointed when my feeble and foolish plans that conflict with His don’t work out the way that I wish them to. Maybe that’s why they don’t work for me in the first place. Maybe my disappointment really reveals the condition of my heart and who I’m really trusting enough to follow.
The disappointment storm can be calmed through quiet faith in the right Person, the One who has ultimate control and unlimited power.
I am finding that the disappointment storm which often blows into my own life can be calmed. It comes from taking a step back in the midst of the storm and asking a few key questions –
Who am I trusting?
Whose plan am I following? My own or His?
What is the process that is in place here? Is it larger than the storm itself?
Jesus and his disciples did indeed make it to the other side of the sea but the men were somewhat different when they set foot on shore. They knew they weren’t as alone as they thought they were but they also knew the One they could really trust. “Even the wind and the waves obey Him!”
Who we are trusting in the disappointment storm must be a larger lesson than our own personal preferences in the storm itself.
Lessons for Living 