Life is full of surprises.  I have discovered that there’s not a day that is 100 percent predictable.  Not only is it difficult, if not impossible, to predict the weather with 100 percent accuracy. It is just as challenging to know what will come at you in a day.  Most likely, they start their day thinking they know how it will go, and then wham!  Something unexpected comes up!

Picture this: the disciples, in the midst of Jesus’s earthly ministry, witnessing His profound influence and power with the masses and His fearless confrontation of the religious leaders. In those moments, they must have felt an exhilarating surge of joy and confidence, as if they were on top of the world. After all, they were with a consistent winner.  We all admire winners, don’t we?

But then, after these high moments, Jesus tells them to get into a boat and go to the other side, and He joins them in the boat. Once they are way out on the water, a storm comes in, and the boat is filling with water, and Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat on a pillow.  All those wonderful feelings from earlier have vanished with this unexpected situation they are now in.  So what do they do?

They do what most people do.  They fought the situation as hard as they could, and when it looked dire to them, they complained and accused the very one they were celebrating and enjoying being with earlier.  Let’s see it from the Scriptures.

Mark 4:35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

I realize there are many views as to what is playing out in the minds of the disciples and Jesus in this story and why Jesus said what He did to them regarding their lack of faith. I wish to present you with mine today.

For many, the focus is on what Jesus said at the start, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  They believe that Jesus’s words should have been sufficient. So, the emphasis is on what Jesus said at the start. For me, the focus is on Jesus Himself and what seems to be a lack of comprehension about Him on the part of the disciples at this point.  They are addressing Him as Teacher.  Eventually, they will refer to Him as Master.  But for now, He is Teacher.  My perspective, I believe, is supported by the way they all, after He had spoken and calmed the storm, said, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him.”  They did not fully grasp who was in the boat with them.  Their lack of faith was not a reprimand for not believing what He initially spoke, but rather, I believe it was a call to them to ponder more deeply about who it was that was with them.

In life’s situations, you can make faith about what you say and do about the situation, or you can go one step higher and make it about who it is that is with you in your boat.  When we are unaware of who is with us, we can complain and accuse, just as the disciples did in that boat way back then.  We can find ourselves blaming God, and then we can look to see what we failed to speak or believe specifically about the circumstance itself.  But faith in what we speak or do specifically regarding the situation itself is a low level faith.

Faith in the goodness of the One who is in the boat with us is a much higher level of faith.  I can have faith in healing as an act, or I can have faith in the Healer based on growing in my knowledge of Him and His goodness and character.  It was not my faith in the act of salvation that made me born again. It was faith in Jesus.  It was believing in Him that made me a new creation because I looked to Him, and He made me alive.  It wasn’t faith in what He could do as much as it was faith in who He is! Who is in your boat?