journey onWord with us

In response to the souls and circumstances of the last ten days of my life, the Spirit prompted a return to a very familiar story.  My daily reading took a timely detour to Mark’s account of Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41).  As i read with fresh eyes and ears, i experienced the fullness of what only God knew i needed — truth to speak into the questions both i and others were asking.  Here is just one of many…

Jesus had just finished a long day of teaching and was, no doubt, exhausted as he gathered with His disciples at the edge of the sea.  “Let us go across to the other side,” Jesus invited.  I think it’s fair to say these words came as a surprise to no one who was with Jesus that day.  After a long day of teaching, the desire to get some space from the crowds must have seemed perfectly understandable.  But I know the whole story, and on the occasion of this particular reading, almost as quickly as i read the words, their weight hit me like never before.  “But Jesus knew about the storm!” I almost blurted out loud.  He was fully human in His exhaustion from the day and desire for quiet and rest.  But He was also fully God in His knowledge of what was coming.  He knew about the storm.

I could go on for paragraphs and pages detailing all that i “discovered” in revisiting the story of Jesus calming the storm.  But there was one truth which captured the eye of my mind and heart more than all the others …  Let us go. 

Let us go … these are the words of Jesus’ invitation to the disciples.  They are only part of the full invitation, but in the context of the souls and circumstances of the last ten days, they became an invitation that stood alone.  Let us go.  I stopped and read them again.  Let us go.  All at once, i left the seaside scene and returned to my “right now.”  Let us go.  They very same words Jesus spoke to the disciples, He speaks to me (and you) in the calm before our storms.  They were words which led the disciples directly into harm’s way, but they were also the guarantee that they would not go there alone.  They are the confident answer to the one who cries out that they are being tempted beyond what they can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), and they were the words He was speaking to me and to the souls near me in the fierce winds and crashing waves that were threatening to overturn our boat.  Jesus, in the form of the indwelling Spirit of God, goes with us into each temptation and storm.  He does not say “You must go.”  Jesus says, “Let us go.”

I would LOVE to tell the story of everything the Spirit spoke through the repeated reading of this very “familiar” miracle.  It would take pages.  But something strong within me prompts in the direction of this one targeted truth.  Maybe it’s you who needs to hear it … to hear the voice of Jesus, saying “Let us go.”

May those words ring clearly and powerfully in your ear and life.  May you feel the presence of Jesus walking alongside you through this season of trouble or testing.  May you not obey your first instinct to leave Jesus sleeping while you grab a bucket to save yourself … and the others who may be in the boat with you.  He knows your storms and holds the power over them.  He withholds no good thing from us … even when that good is accomplished by fierce winds and crashing waves.