I love boating. Perhaps I should clarify though: I love boating in good weather. Good weather to me is when the ocean is flat and there’s no wind. High winds and high seas are bad weather to me.
I’m not a sailor, I’m a power boater. I’ve boated in good weather and I’ve boated in bad weather. I definitely prefer the former. Sure, the latter is exhilifying (exhilarating and terrifying), but I still prefer glassy water and non-existent wind.
We’ve been caught in some pretty brutal conditions. We had 20-30 knot winds blowing at our stern, and a strong ebb tide crashing head-long into the wind whipped waves pushing us from behind. Those conditions created high, sharp, white-capped waves moving faster than our boat could go.
The waves picked our 40’ boat up from the stern, threw us forward at a precarious angle until we came careening down the face of that wave and our bow crashed into the wave in front of us. We then seemed to stall momentarily in the trough of the wave until another monster wave picked us up from behind and repeated the cycle over and over again.
Not pleasant.
My prayer was for Jesus to join us in the boat and calm the storm. Or at least keep us alive until we reached port.
I thought about this situation recently when reading about the story of Jesus walking on the water. As you know, the disciples were heading across the lake while Jesus got some alone time. They were caught in winds blowing against them creating rough water, which made the going tough.
Jesus came walking by in the middle of the night. This, of course, freaked them out because no one in human history had ever seen this before. Peter responds to Jesus’ encouragement for them to take courage and not to be afraid, and asks Jesus if He wants him to come out and join Him.
Jesus says, “Come.”
Peter gets out of the boat and joins Jesus in the midst of the storm. Amazingly, Peter walks on water too. Then, his faith faltered when he focused on the storm instead of Jesus, and he began to sink. Jesus saved him and asked,
“Why did you doubt?”
This has always bothered me a bit. Peter was the only one who got out of the boat. He actually walked on water for a while. You have to love Peter’s boldness. Why didn’t Jesus say,
“Way to go Peter! You did it! You walked on water! Sure, you sunk at the end, but great job anyway!”
Jesus didn’t say that. He actually chastised him – “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
I don’t totally understand this interaction, but I think one thing we need to learn is that Jesus has high standards for us! What we may think is a pretty good effort, He may be disappointed in – He knows who we are and what we can do in Him. We need to ensure our standards are in-keeping with who Jesus is and who He says we are.
After this interaction Jesus and Peter get in the boat and the storm completely died down.
Two scenarios: 1. Jesus invites us to join Him in the storm. 2. Jesus gets in our boat and calms the storm.
I think this is a great picture of how Jesus invites us to live in Him. When we’re caught in a storm of any kind (financial, relational, work, health, etc.) we predominantly ask Jesus to get in our boat and calm the storm. And sometimes He does just that.
Other times I believe he invites us to discover Him in the storm. He invites us to walk with Him through the storm. He isn’t calming the storm. The storm is part of His purposes in our life.
When you find yourself in a storm of sorts, make your first position to discover Jesus in the tempest. Get out of your boat and join Jesus. He can always calm the storm, but our goal needs to be Jesus, not the calm.
Walk with Him in and out of the boat.
Matthew 14:29-32
“’Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’ And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.”
Isaiah 43:2
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
Romans 8:35-39
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”