The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

Two thoughts about this story…

Thought One:
Notice how similar this story is to Jonah? A storm that makes veteran sailors nervous. The reason/solution to the storm is asleep in the boat. In one story, the main character must die to calm the storm. In the other, the main character will die to calm the ultimate storm. Once the storm is calm, the sailors become even more scared.

Lots of parallels and not sure how to tie it all together, but I’m struck how consistently God chooses to use storms to get our attention. Of course, the problem is you never know exactly what Jesus is going to do in the middle of a storm.

Ultimately, this is our frustration with Jesus. He isn’t predictable. In one storm, he calms it. (Albeit after the sailors go into a complete panic and wake up Jesus, screaming at him – ‘Do you even care if we die???’) In another, he is walking on by with the intent to leave the disciples in the middle of the storm.

In both cases, those in the storm are left more rattled after their encounter with Jesus than they were in the storm. Which says something, doesn’t it? That really cuts to the core of the issue – Does trusting Jesus scare us more than the storm we may find ourselves in?

Here’s some good news – eventually the disciples will ace this test. Every time. They will change the world. They will travel the world. They will be tested in every kind of storm you can imagine, and they will trust Jesus every single time. They will trust Jesus without flinching… eventually.

And that’s encouraging to me, because there are some days when I relate more to these disciples in the boat than the ones post-resurrection. Of course, you know how Jesus transformed these disciples into those leaders?

By putting them in storms.