Sometimes it seems God takes an awfully long time to swing into action. And sometimes that’s because we haven't asked, because we've forgotten that things that seem insurmountable to us are just a matter of a word for God. And sometimes what strikes us as nail-bitingly late is right on time for the Creator of the universe.
In this week’s story, the disciples find themselves imperiled in a sudden squall on the Sea of Galilee, and they discover Jesus in the stern, blithely sleeping through the hubbub. They wake him up, saying, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ Jesus does not get up and join the hysteria. He just calmly exercises his authority over creation.
He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
One word from Jesus, and it all died down. No more wind, no more waves, no more panicked heartbeats. In fact, we’re told, there was a dead calm. It went not back to normal, but to a complete calm. Jesus did not have to pray in a dramatic fashion, whip up a frenzy of faith, plead with the heavens – he just calmly spoke peace to the elements, and his word had the power to calm, to make things so still it could only have been by his action. Jesus doesn’t do things by halves.
But why did he wait so long? Well – was it so long? Didn’t Jesus act as soon as he was asked to? A better question might be, why did the disciples take so long to ask for help? Why do we so often get ourselves into a state, deep into a difficult situation before we think to ask Jesus for help?
Is prayer your first response or last resort in a crisis?
Can you think of a time when you remembered to pray early in a fraught situation– asking for resolution, and also for peace and power and a sense of God’s presence? When we can make that prayer our default setting, we often have a better ability to see our way through the winds.
Peacefulness and calm are markers of God-Life. Not that the Spirit is some kind of spiritual Prozac, evening everything out – Jesus certainly displayed emotions like righteous anger, grief, praise. But storminess is not the way of God. A Lord who can rebuke the wind and command the sea is a Lord who can still our spirits, as we ask, and as we allow.
Maybe the reason it sometimes takes us so long to feel God's peace is because our spirits, with all their freedom of will, are not yet as responsive to Jesus’ command as are the winds and waves.
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