One of my favorite stories in the Bible and one that has pushed, encouraged, and comforted me is the story of Jesus calming the storm. (Mark 4:35-41) In the story, Jesus gathers his disciples and tells them to get in the boat so that they can go to the other side. Well, while the disciples are rowing the boat, Jesus is taking a nap. Then a storm comes and ravages the boat. The disciples, of course, are scared and run to wake Jesus. Jesus, in true Jesus fashion, wipes the slobber from his mouth and calms the storm. But before he goes back to get some more sleep, he chastises them by asking why they had such little faith. 

If I am being honest, I know all too well how the disciples feel. In my 31 years of life and 10 years of doing ministry, I know how the disciples feel. Even now as the entire world is dealing with this Coronavirus, I’m pretty sure we all have had moments of fear and anxiety. And even if we won’t admit it with our mouths, our actions and anxieties show that we identify with the disciples and that we have little faith and are scrambling to try to wake Jesus up. 

This COVID pandemic is something that we have never seen before. Our modern, fast-paced, transient world has never been brought to a halt all at the same time. The entire world is shut down and there is so much uncertainty about the future. We are getting ravaged by a storm and it doesn’t look like Jesus is in any rush to stop it. 

I’m sure he’s not napping but he’s definitely not swooping in to save us from this tomorrow. Now he could absolutely do this, but I think this is one of those “Why do you have such little faith?” moments with which Jesus challenged the disciples. If you read that story quickly, you can come away confused and with some questions. You could ask, “Why did Jesus chastise them and question their faith? They had every right to panic and be afraid, right?” Sure they did, if they didn’t hear the promise that Jesus had already said to them. 

The promise is when Jesus first beckoned them to the boat. He said, “Come, let us go to the other side.” In this short little phrase, Jesus has already confirmed that no matter what they would get to the other side. 

No matter how big the storm, no matter how long it would take, no matter if the boat topsides; they were going to get to the other side. But yet when the storm came, even though they had the promise of Jesus, the disciples panicked and lost all faith. They stopped rowing their boat because in the midst of the storm they focused more on the storm than on the words of Jesus. Jesus had already secured the outcome of their journey that day but because of panic, fear, and anxiety, they totally lost sight of that. They stopped doing what they were supposed to do, which was row the boat so that they could get to the other side. 

To you who are reading this, let us not forget that this same Jesus has secured our final destination no matter how big the storm or how deadly the Coronavirus. When we feel anxiety about the future and all that comes with that, let’s keep the faith and keep rowing. Let’s fix our eyes on our creator who has already said, “Come, let us go to the other side.”