Jesus Calms The Storm
Ryan Masih is a second-year student studying Video Production.
Ryan’s favourite story — Mark 4:35-41
‘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?’ They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’
Ryan’s reflections — ‘It starts as a typical travel event with the lads. They are taking a nice little trip on the water. On such trips, we all have that one friend who gets tired and knocks out; here it’s Jesus who crashes out. The storm comes out of nowhere and the disciples are on high alert, feeling fairly anxious. The first thing that came to their minds is: ‘This is how I am going to die.’ If I was in their shoes that’s what I would have thought. Sensibly the first thing they do is go and wake Jesus.
There are many words and themes that we can draw from this story but what stands out to me is REST. When the storm started and the wind was bashing from side to side, left to right, it felt uncontrollable. They didn’t know what to do, but their first response was to wake Jesus up. Jesus takes command and simply says, “Be still.”’
Tim — In life we have so many issues, so many problems, so many ‘storms’ and often the first thing we do is panic thinking ‘What am I going to do!’ Life pushes us from side to side, left and right and at times feel like it has completely destroyed us. But like the disciples we can go to Jesus first. We can take our problems and place them at the feet of Jesus: he has the power to come in and say, ‘Be still’ and the storm goes. Hearing this as a kid it always felt like a Marvel Superhero moment where the storm stops the minute Jesus showed up. He still has this power today.
When we pray and surrender things to Jesus, he takes control, calms that storm and leads us into something much more peaceful.
Prayer — Jesus please show up in this situation I name to you and speak peace. I bring these ‘storms’ before you and ask that you speak your ‘Be still’ over them.