Mk 4:35-41
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
“Let us cross to the other side.”
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
He woke up,
rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?”
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
Towards the end of my time at GM, there was a saying I had and became quite well known for. The saying was, “Who Cares.” It was so well known that for a retirement present, people I worked with got me a t-shirt with “Who Cares” stamped across the front of it. This came about because, during a complicated construction project, whenever a problem was brought to my attention, my initial response was, “Who cares?” People could be turned off by hearing that, so a person I worked with would translate, “It’s not really that he doesn’t care, it’s just that he’s not worried.”
That was the case, I wasn’t worried, because I had faith, faith in Jesus. Even what I did at work, he was in control of, not me, and if I did things his way, everything always worked out. I had faith in the team of people I worked with because of the time we had spent together and things we had done in the past. No matter the problem, it could be overcome.
In this Gospel story, even Jesus can seem like he doesn’t care. Sleeping in the back of the boat while a storm raged around them, the disciples had to wake him up and ask, “Teacher, don’t you care…?” Jesus replied with peace, stillness, and calm.
Jesus offers a hope for that way of life. A life where we can be calm, peaceful, and joyful in our struggles, tensions, and stresses. It’s a fearless life. A life free from fear of things that could threaten us and keep us from doing what God is asking us to do. A life that makes the devil tremble and causes others to take notice. This life begins with faith.
Wealth, status, power, and control are not the secret to living this type of life. It is only our faith, our trust in Jesus that enables us to live this life that he offers. Reflecting on this gospel story is a chance for us to awaken and strengthen our faith and increase our trust in him. A chance to remind ourselves that Jesus has authority over anything that could threaten us. A chance for us to decide to go to the back of the boat, not out of fear, although sometimes that’s what it takes to get us to go to him, but to go to him out of faith, knowing that by trusting him, whatever we’re going through, while it may not be easy, we’ll get through it and somehow things will work out and we’ll be ok.
Going to the back of the boat begins with our deciding to do so. We decide to take time to quiet ourselves and reflect on what’s going on in and around us, paying attention to our thoughts and feelings. Noticing things that feel heavy on our minds and hearts, and becoming aware of what we’re worried about. Then we decide to go to Jesus in prayer and tell him about them.
When we reflect and pray this way, a couple things can happen:
Sometimes in prayer we can receive a message from Jesus, a simple thing we could do that would relieve our worry. It’s up to us to do it. No one else, just us. Sometimes we resist because it seems silly, or that it wouldn’t make a difference, or we’re just too lazy. Until we do this simple thing, the worry will persist. So if Jesus gives you something to do, just do it.
Sometimes things aren’t so simple. In more complicated circumstances, going to the back of the boat includes humility. We set aside our pride, give up trying to control the situation, and surrender our worry to Jesus. But, that doesn’t mean that we can just sit back and do nothing.
While we’re in the back of the boat, we’re not only humble, but willing - willing to receive help, willing to let someone else take the lead, and willing to do our part. We pay attention to who Jesus sends to help us and we openly receive this help because we know it comes from him. Although it might not be easy, in God’s time, by doing our part and with the help of others, we get through what we’re going through. Things work out and we’re ok.
Our faith in Jesus, knowing he’s in our boat, knowing we can go to him and trust that he helps us to get through whatever we’re going through, is the key to living the fearless, calm, and peaceful life he offers us. So take some time in the coming week to silence yourself, reflect, pray, do your part, and let Jesus remove worry from your life.