Today's daily lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41:
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
There is the big miracle in this story, the one which is most visible and most memorable -- the stilling of the storm. Yet behind that is the smaller miracle, which though less visible, is when one really pauses to think about it no less astonishing than Jesus' stilling of the storm. I am talking about Jesus' stillness in the storm.
Waves crashing, winds whipping, thunder and lightning over head -- everything is out of control. The little boat -- a symbol of the church or the home or the business -- caught up in the storm and completely out of control. This is chaos; everything is spinning, and topsy turvy, and even if they knew which way to go, there is no way now to get there, no way to steer the little dinghy of a boat. Yet Jesus is still, calm, at peace enough to sleep through it all.
That's infuriating to the crew. They rouse him with anger and pointed fingers, "Don't you care?" And yet Jesus' calm remains; he absorbs their hostility and does not return it. I think of Kipling's words:
"If you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs --
And blaming it on you . . .
You shall be a man my son."
The boat is swamped. The accusations fly. The storm rages. Yet, Jesus is calm. He is calm amidst the storm. He is the calm amidst the storm.
I don't believe the big miracle -- the stilling of the storm -- would ever have happened without the smaller miracle -- the stillness in the storm. And so maybe that's what we should pray for first, not the power to rebuke the winds and the waves, but the peace to go ahead and sleep when all is chaos and confusion; for we shall never be able to bring calm to the chaos around us, if we do not first have calm amidst the chaos within us.
And Jesus said, "Peace, be still."
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