In the Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter 4, we see a really beautiful scene occur where the Lord Jesus Christ is on a boat with His disciples. Now He happens to be on the boat and He's sleeping, He's resting, but while He's resting, His disciples are fully awake, because there's a storm. And the storm feels like it's about to overtake the boat. And they're being tossed back and forth because of the waves and they begun to be filled with fear.
So, they immediately run to the Lord Jesus as He's sleeping and they go and wake Him up. And the way that they wake Him up says something about all of us: the way that we feel when we're overtaken by fear. They don't wake Him up very calmly and say we're sorry to disturb you, Lord, but we need your help at the moment. They don't go quietly and calmly tell Him there's something that needs your attention and we need you to be able to help us and save us. None of that! The disciples seem to wake Him up and they immediately say:
'' 38 (...) ''Do You not care that we are perishing?'' '' (Mark 4:38)
Do you not care that we're going to waste away? Do you not care that the storm is going to overtake us? Are you just sleeping and resting peacefully, and you are in a state of absolute peace and calmness while we are completely overtaken by anxiety and fear, fighting for our lives?
This passage is extremely beautiful, because it is a perfect representation of what happens within the human soul when fear overtakes us. What was the response of Lord? He quietly gets up. He stands before the storm. He raises His hand and He says:
'' 39 (...) ''Peace, be still!'' '' (Mark 4:39)
And immediately the waters are calmed. And once they are calmed, He then turns to His disciples and what does he tell them? He tells them: Why are you afraid? Now, this might seem like an irrational question, because to them, it should be obvious why we're afraid... The storm is raging. We're afraid it's going overtake us. It's gonna flip over the boat and you were just sitting there silently sleeping. We needed you to do something!
But His disciples suddenly become very aware of the fact that He doesn't only ask them why are you afraid? He says:
Why have you such little faith? Have you forgotten who it is who's with you on the boat? Have you and I forgotten who it is that stands for us? Have we forgotten that our God is much bigger than the conflict that we are facing? That our God and His love is so much more mighty than the problems that we face? That our sin, our addictions, our passions that we
struggle with, every source of problem and conflict that we face, it is nothing in the light of the majesty and the good greatness of the God that we believe in? Have we forgotten? Have we been blinded? Have we been completely paralyzed by our fear to the point where we no longer recognize who is in the boat with us?
May the Lord grant you and me to be able to be like the disciples! The disciples who, in their simplicity, wake Him up and tell Him: we need you. But may He also grant us the faith that would never doubt that He has somehow abandoned us or forgotten us, but rather that we are never afraid, because we recognize that Him who is in the boat with us is much greater than any storm that surrounds us.