Daily Lesson for January 30, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verse 53:

"When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore."

Here is a curious little sentence that passes right by us if we aren't paying attention. After feeding the 5,000 Jesus sent the disciples in the boat on across the Sea of Galilee toward a place called Bethsaida, while he stayed and dismissed the crowds. He then spent several more hours alone in prayer before crossing the lake himself deep in the night -- on foot.  For hours the disciples had been struggling across the lake against an adverse wind.  When Jesus came to them he stilled the waves; but the boat had been so driven so off course that when they finally got to shore they had totally missed their original destination Bethsaida, and ended up at a place called Gennesaret.

I like that as a metaphor for life. We set off in some direction for some given destination but about half way across the lake life happened. We struggled with adverse and in some cases fierce winds. Sails ripped and our little dingy of a life was in danger of being sunk. It was then that our Lord came to us in the dark and calmed the winds. The dingy was saved!  But Bethsaida?  No, reaching Bethsaida is no longer possible -- not now anyway.  And it's here we have a choice.  We can hang our heads and mope about all that was stacked against us and spend all our days in despair over not getting to Bethsaida, or we can look at it another way; we can keep in perspective just how lucky we were to make it to Gennesaret -- just how lucky we were to make it anywhere!

We didn't make it to Bethsaida -- so what?  We made it to the shore of Gennesaret. By the grace of God, who came to us in the midnight of our struggle, we made it to Gennesaret. And the rest of the journey will depend on what we do here today in this place and no other.  

And the best news?  Instead of going on to Bethsaida, our Lord Himself has seen fit to stay with us here in Gennesaret also.  And that means some pretty interesting things are bound to happen right where we are.