If I asked you to find a location where a man walked on water, caught hundreds of fish, taught thousands of people, and calmed raging seas, what would your answer be?

[Here’s a hint: It starts with Sea and ends with Galilee.]

Much is said of Jesus’ work on the Sea of Galilee. If you’ve been to Sunday School or VBS, then I’m positive you’ve heard of at least one of His amazing acts either at sea, on shore, or on water… as in literally walking on it. So you can imagine it’s one of my favorite places in the whole world to visit. To be so close to the actual places where Jesus taught, worked,  slept, and served is… well, it’s magical. Better yet, it’s miraculous because He is still in the business of doing miracles today.

On our recent trip to Israel, we spent three days in the Galilee region and on our final day in the area, we boarded a ship and sailed the sea much like Jesus would’ve done many years ago. Matt–trip leader, coordinator of chaos, and my husband–asked me to teach at this location, but more importantly to create a defining moment on the water.

We turned to Mark 4:35-40 and read five short scriptures as we sat in our boat gently rocking on the water.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 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. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Think about it. The disciples were scared because their life was on the line. We can read the expression furious squall and not think much because come on, who really uses those words? King James died so let’s use the BIV [Bianca International Version] to break this down: there was a major rager on water and their boat [and their world] was being ROCKED!

What did they feel?

  • Scared
  • Confused
  • Alone
  • Overwhelmed
  • Terrified

Eight of the small crew were professional fishermen. As in, these people had sailed the sea for y.e.a.r.s. and knew that particular sea since childbirth. They were experts but as we see in scripture, the experts didn’t know what to do.

Don’t you care if we drown?
It’s a simple question but loaded with pain that, if we’re honest, we can empathize with. When the storms of life rage, when you feel like you’re drowning, have you ever asked, Do you care that I’m going to die? Don’t you see that I’m drowning?

Five years ago I sat on a similar boat on that exact sea and felt overwhelmed by the storms of life. My mother was towards the end of her fight with brain cancer and I felt like I was drowning, suffocated by the waves of life. Teacher, do you not care if we drown?

Five years later I’m standing on exact dock about to board our boat and teach about how Jesus was faithful and forever true and can calm all storms of life and healed my mother when I received a text message from my sister stating that mom had to go back to the oncologist because she is experiencing her cancer symptoms.

I felt like the air had been kicked out of my stomach. My eyes filled with tears and I told Matt that I couldn’t teach, I couldn’t talk about this because it was too emotional to talk about something that feels like the beginning of a raging storm in my life. Again.

But as we pulled out from dock and began to sing worship music, I remembered that Jesus is still faithful and forever true and can calm all the storms of life. In that moment, I heard the same question that Jesus asked His disciples on that exact sea I sailed on, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

My heart poured open in the few minutes I taught on this passage and realized that thousands of years later, He’s still asking us if we have faith to weather the storms of life.

What are the storms you are faced with today? What are the problems that are breaking over the bow of your life that are drowning you? Whatever you are facing and feeling like God is sleeping while you’re drowning in the sea, know that He is not far from you but with you. He asked you to get in the boat like He asked the disciples to. He is more skilled than the experts and more confident than the professionals. He is Jesus, the man who performed miracles then and now.

Mom has met with three different doctors in the last five days and has an appointment with her neuro-oncologist on Monday. The miracle wasn’t that my mom was instantaneously healed. The miracle was that I believed that if He could calm the storms of my life five years ago, He could do it again. Faith–not cancer–was my storm.

What is your storm? Why are you still afraid?

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