This summer, I, my girlfriend and my youngest brother went on a boat swim in one of the big lakes in North East Poland. We had an old boat that belonged to my girlfriend’s grandfather. I have gone never swimming on a boat before, but I was excited and confident that I can do it. So we did, everything was going well until we got to the middle of the lake where suddenly a strong wing started blowing. The lake changed from peaceful and harmless to stormy and dangerous. I got scared, suddenly I realized that I was not in control, I was scared because the boat could turn over at any moment putting two of my loved ones in danger.
Isn’t that typical of our life? We often are quite confident and think we have the control of our life. Sometimes we realize the dangers but we feel strong enough to overcome them. We plan ahead so that we would be prepared when trouble comes. Sometimes, however, things get out of our control.
I think of Jesus disciples. They were experienced fishermen and yet when the storm came they were frightened, “They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" They were hopeless and their only refuge was their master Jesus Christ - the only person who is in control of everything. Jesus is God and therefore it was natural for him to calm down the storm.
We will encounter dangers in our life. We will sometimes feel hopeless, and yet this will make us realize that we can’t have confidence in anything except God. He is in control and He can calm down any storm in our life.
Timothy
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3 comments:
Having rafted some of the more challenging rapids in Oregon, I understand your analogy. It was not uncommon to be on near glass smooth water, laying back in the raft and enjoying the scenery thinking all was smooth and then… You would come around a corner and the guide would get everyone ready to navigate rapids that made grown men become nervous let alone weaklings like me. Unfortunately in life we do not have a guide that warns us there are rapids coming, get ready. However, we do have a guide that helps us through the rapids and we know Him as the Holy Spirit.
Why is it we only tend to yield to Him when the waters of life are tough?
I can truly appreciate what you said here as I have spent a great deal of time outdoors climbing and backpacking. I have come into situations that I could not control and if not for the grace of God I might not have physically survived them.
The other day I realized that I want to do the things that God wants me to wherever He wants me to. The problem is that I want to find out in my time in my own way what the situations are going to look like. I get frustrated and even disheartened when things don't seem to be working out. But just as you said "We will sometimes feel hopeless, and yet this will make us realize that we can’t have confidence in anything except God."
Timothy, When you said, "Sometimes, however, things get out of our control." it made me think that in reality all of life is out of our control. At moments of panic like you described we finally realize that fact. Maybe God has to put us in those settings occassionally, as he did the disciples, to keep that fact in front of us.
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