On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 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. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
- Mark 4:35-41
Constant stress disrupts sleep patterns. How many of us, when evening comes, become restless, agitated, and start tossing and turning instead of drifting off to sleep? After I've said Compline and shut my eyes, I feel like I'm huddled in the tiny boat being rocked violently by that storm. It's impossible to sleep like that.
As a parent of teenagers, I wonder if Jesus was playing possum. It's what my kids do to put off being woken up especially when it's time for chores or anything not that fun. Playing possum is also what I do, sometimes falling asleep during family movie night, only to come to mid way through an interesting conversation, like being a fly on the wall to what the kids really think. So I wonder. Is Jesus listening in on the disciples? Awake the whole time?
Peace, or Shalom, is the first thing Jesus says to the sea, and to the soggy disciples. Does that means he was listening the entire time?
A different kind of peace fills me now when I think of Jesus addressing me; "why are you afraid?" It's like he's also saying, I'm here. I've got this. He's not blaming me for being afraid. He's just with me, breathing peace and calming all things.
Musical Reflection - Water Music - G.F. Handel
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.- Serenity prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr
