A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 23 October 2014
Read Mark 4:35-41
We used to walk the streets Friday nights
to share the love of Christ, offering friends a warm meal or a place to stay.
Nights went very late; so, I was often exhausted and looking forward to my one
day to sleep in – Saturday. This one Saturday about 6am my young daughters come
bounding into our room.
“Daddy, what’s a trout?” my four
year-old, asks as she and her sister climb on my bed. “What’s a trout?”
“A fish, why do you ask?”
“A fish?”
“Yes, a fish.”
“Oh…Like Nemo…?”
“Sort of, I think Nemo is a Clown fish.”
“Oh”, she says.
“Daddy,” asks my three year-old who has been
sitting here the whole time, “what’s a trout?”
“A fish.”
“Like Nemo?”
“No.”
“Daddy?”
“Yes dear!?”
“What’s a trout?”
“A chipmunk; a Chipmunk!” I snap back
with all the composure of one who has not had enough sleep.
The girls run out of the room laughing. I
pull a pillow over my head, trying to get back to sleep, wondering what just
happened and why. Why I was woken up for a question that no one seemed to want
the answer to anyway?
At this point, quietly in comes my wife.
I know I have spoken a little harshly to my daughters, so I listen intently
waiting to hear what she has to say; as she lifts the pillow from my head she
gently asks me, “Dear, What’s a trout?”
Looking back at the scripture today, I
imagine it must have been a similar feeling for Jesus. The disciples wake him
with a simple request but they (unlike my daughters) are panicked. A storm
comes up. They wake Jesus and ask, “Teacher, don't you care if we
drown?”
They don’t ask, “Can you save us?” The
disciples know Jesus can save them. What they don’t know is if he cares
enough to save them. They are panicked. And Jesus tells them that their waking
him to ask this shows that they don’t really have faith.
Today, do we really have faith? Not just
a belief that Jesus can do things but a faith that Jesus will do what is best.
In our world today, we are faced with many kinds of storms. We know that God
can save us. Sometimes, however, do we lack faith that He will save us?
Sometimes do we seem to treat Jesus as if he is sleeping and in need of waking
up before he can help us?
Jesus was right in the storm with the
disciples. They were not alone. They can have faith; Jesus can calm any storm.
Today, Jesus can still calm any storm and so we too can have faith. The Lord provides even and especially where
we cannot. Even in our toughest times, we don’t need to panic; somehow,
someway, our storms too will be calmed. We can have faith in Jesus.
When has the Lord delivered you in your
time of need?
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Mark 4:35-41: We
Stand in Awe of You. Presented to Salvation Army Tisdale, March 30, 2008
Nipawin, April 6, 2008. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/03/mark-435-41-we-stand-in-awe-of-you.html
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