I literally thought that a limb had been severed from my screaming daughter. She was six years old and had bitten into an apple. The already wobbly front tooth was hanging low on a vein. She sat on the kitchen work top her mouth permanently open, tooth swinging, convinced this was how it was always going to be. Sobbing with your mouth open isn’t easy and eventually the offending tooth fell out. “This. Is. THE. worst day of my life” she wailed, still traumatised from the experience. It was all I could do not to cry laughing, I had to leave the room for a while as she recovered from the shock.
Storms are relative aren’t they. We each seem to have a DQ …(drama quotient). What phases me might seem a day in the park to another and vice
This Sunday’s Gospel finds the Apostles in a boat in a storm.
Jesus has invited them on a journey. Jesus invites us on a journey too, if we are willing to leave the predictability of the shore and allow him into our little boats. The only real way to the other side. It will be a risky and unknown adventure, one where we will find just what we are made of and for.
The only thing really guaranteed is that is storms will break. It’s tempting to want to turn round, but you’ll notice that storms always come when that isn’t really a viable option. Storms come to call us to choose where our boats are headed. We are being formed and taught to gaze upon the sleeping Christ, trusting that if it were a time for drama he would raise some.
What if we aren’t supposed to wake Jesus up but allow him to sleep ? What if the aim is to keep our souls in complete peace and serenity and allow his presence to rest comfortably and undisturbed in our souls. If Jesus is untroubled within us, then really, we can trust all will be well.
It takes an Iron will to hold that peace when the storm looks to over throw your boat, and there’s no doubt we can get battered by the storm, but it will not take us down if He is safe in our boat.
There were other boats on the lake that day, boats without Jesus in them. Some had other passengers, Loud voiced passengers called doubt, mistrust and apathy. We never hear who made it and who didn’t, did they ever set out on the lake again? Did they persevere to reach the other side or turn back to where they started? Perhaps they questioned who He really was? Did they wonder “It can’t be right if it’s this hard” or decide it wasn’t worth the effort? They all experienced the same storm, but what we do know is the boat with Jesus in it made it to the other side safely.
We get to choose who is in our little boats.
All I do know is I want Jesus in mine, awake and directing is wonderful but what an even greater blessing if He is sleeping, I can rejoice that God has found a place to lay His head and rest within me.