EMBRACING THE PROCESS
In the midst of the storm, sometimes we lose sight of the promises that God has given us. It’s easy to be distracted by the chaos and threat of danger. Physiologically, our brains produce stress hormones , also known as adrenaline, during fight or flight scenarios that increase our physical capacity but impair our ability to reason properly. In the face of real danger, heightened adrenaline can save your life. In the case of a false alarm, it can make you do some crazy things.
One night, my wife woke me up convinced that someone had broken into our home. Immediately, my fight response kicked in. Like most men, I’d do anything to protect my family. I grabbed the closest weapon, which happened to be a baseball bat, ready to defend my home from the intruder. My heart was racing as I headed down the hall to where the suspicious noise was coming from, near the bathroom. The “intruder” turned out to be a gum wrapper scraping the bathroom tile because the heat vent was blowing it around! When I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, a hyper-intense “Batman” ready to strike, I started laughing at how ridiculous I looked.
We are human. It’s easy for us to overreact in the face of a perceived threat. This happened to Jesus’ disciples in Mark 4. They were crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat when a fierce storm threatened their lives. They immediately jumped to some false conclusions that could serve as powerful lessons for us in the midst of our storms.
Don’t mistake the presence of a storm for God’s absence. Just because trouble was striking them in the face didn’t mean God was missing. Jesus was in the boat, right beside them the whole time. Incidentally, He was not worried. He was sleeping. This should remind us that our storms aren’t a surprise or a threat to God. They are part of His plan for us. They don’t catch Him off-guard.
Don’t mistake waiting on God as His unwillingness to care. The disciples falsely assumed that because Jesus hadn’t rescued them yet He must not care about them. They were forgetting that He had already promised them success in their journey before they ever got into the boat. In verse 35, Jesus says, “Let us go over to the other side…” He had already guaranteed that they would make it to the other side of this trial. We must be careful not to let the wind and waves cloud our judgement or cause us to forget the promises He has already given to us in His Word.
Don’t scorn the journey, celebrate it. You cannot know the fullness of God’s grace and power apart from storms. The disciples learned something new about Jesus in this storm. They learned He had power over not just sickness and sin, but the elements of the earth. This is a lesson they would need later when He was sealed in a tomb. Your storm will eventually be followed by calm. In its midst, celebrate the fact that God is choosing to reveal more of His power to you! He trusts you with this storm. Trust Him!