The calm inside the storm (Pt.1)

(Part 1)

“35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’41 They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’-Mark 4:35-41

All of us are familiar with storms. Live long enough and you may experience the fiercest of what mother nature has to offer. From the 140 tornadoes that touched down Easter weekend spanning the south to the devastating Hurricane Laura that blasted Texas and Louisiana; we are all susceptible to experiencing storms of various sizes and intensities. 

A storm is defined as a violent disturbance in the atmosphere usually accompanied by strong winds. Mark 4:37 provides us a description of the storm that the disciples found themselves in:

“A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.”

There are three significant variables that characterized this storm: 

First, a furious squall came up- meaning it came up quickly and unexpectedly. 

Secondly, waves broke over the boat- meaning it breached what made them feel safe.  

Finally, it nearly swamped them- meaning it was so overwhelming that they couldn’t seem to bail themselves out of it, no matter how hard they tried.  

However, not all the storms that we face are on the outside. Some are on the inside. Many people battle depression, anxiety, the inability to forgive, low self-worth, and fear on a daily basis. Those internal storms carry the very same variables as an external storm: they often come on us quickly and unexpectedly, they breach what makes us feel safe, and overwhelms us so that we can’t seem to bail ourselves out. Our internal atmosphere gets disrupted. 

Just as there is an external atmosphere that can become disrupted, there is an internal one that can be disrupted as well. It is in the midst of this disruption that we are challenged to look for the calm inside the storm. 

Pastor Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church