Wake Up Jesus

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?’

We are like the disciples who, panic-stricken, accused Jesus of not caring about their fate. "Jesus, wake up!" they scream as the waters roil and the winds blow. They take the storm as a personal attack upon themselves. We, too, are sometimes convinced that everything that comes upon us is somehow the world's personal attack on us. In those times, we're certain that our Savior is slumbering while we suffer. Why else have we not experienced instant deliverance from our troubles? We scream, "Jesus, wake up! Don't you care that we're perishing? Don't you care what is happening to us?"

When things are going well in life it's easy to be lulled into a false sense of security, believing nothing bad can befall us again. We have fallen asleep at the wheel and we awake in a panic when the storms of life begin to blow. We wonder where God is and if we have been abandoned to the waves that threaten to capsize our boat. We accuse God of being asleep - leaving us to be swallowed up by our problems.

We forget that we have the greatest power in the world right at our fingertips. God, whose power flows in and through everything in this world, flows through us as well. God's power is not the power of a dictator or a superhero, swooping in to rescue us and set everything right in the blink of an eye. Instead, God's power is a cooperative power that requires us to be awake. This power requires us to have faith in ourselves, in our own ability to co-create with God in the world. Our faith doesn't have to be huge - just the size of mustard seed will do - but our faith, combined with God's overwhelming power, means that nothing in the world can upend our boats. That faith in ourselves, combined with God's power, means we can move mountains - or find calm waters when our boats are rocked.