Calming the Storm

That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowds behind, they took Him along just as He was in the boat. There was also other boats with Him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 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?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him."
                                                                                                                 -Mark 4:35-41

I can find it hard to imagine what it would be like to be in the boat when Jesus calmed the storm. One minute you're in the middle of a violent storm and the next everything is completely calm. All because of Jesus' words. I get the disciples' reaction to it.

This isn't just a thing of the time when Jesus was on earth. His words still have the same power to calm the storm today. It's not always a physical storm, in terms of wind and waves and danger of drowning. The storm can be the circumstances around us, the emotions of a situation. All sorts of things can be the storms of our lives.

When we're listening for His voice, we hear Him speaking to the storm.

When we cry out to Jesus, as the disciples did, we can hear Jesus' voice speaking.

. . . Speaking peace when worry, anxiety, and fear over things we can't control is raging.

. . . Speaking truth when lies are dragging us down a dangerous path.

. . . Speaking encouragement when it feels like too much for us to keep on going.

. . . Speaking guidance when the path to take is obscured.

. . . Speaking courage when fear of the storm has pushed us into hiding.

Jesus continues to speak to the storms in our lives to calm them. Even if the storm continues to rage around us, His words can be the calm that keeps us persevering and clinging to Him.

What storm in your life do you need Jesus to speak to right now?

Will you take the time to listen for His voice speaking to it?

The Right Soil

The Parable of the Sower in Mark 4:1-20 is a familiar one.

A farmer goes out to scatter seed. There's four places the seed lands:

• Path - where the birds eat it up right away
• Rocky Places - where it springs up quickly but doesn't last when the sun comes because there is no root
• Thorns - where it gets choked by the thorns growing around it before it can really take root and grow
• Good Soil - where it takes root, grows, and produces a crop

Each of the soils represents a heart and how receptive it is to the Word of God.
In some hearts, it will be snatched away before it even try to grow.
In some hearts, it will begin to grow, but won't last when hard times come.
In some hearts, it will be choked out by the worries and anxieties of life.
In some hearts, it will take root and produce fruit in their lives.

I've always heard this parable spoken of in regards to salvation. It's a pretty clear application.

As I was reading it recently, I was struck by how this applies to more than just salvation. The same concepts continue to apply to our hearts after salvation as well.

We continually have a choice in how we'll respond to God's voice in our lives. When He speaks to us, our hope may be that those words will always take root in our lives and bear fruit, but that's not always the case. Those words can land on any one of these types of soil when we're believers as well.

Sometimes we've wandered away and given Satan access he shouldn't have and he uses this to grab the words before they have a chance to grow.

Sometimes we're not will to deal with the sin in areas of our lives and when the word speaks to those areas it grows quickly but doesn't last because there's no way for the roots to go deep.

Sometimes our focus shifts and we get so focused on the worries and anxieties of life that they choke out the words of truth God is speaking.

Sometimes our heart is receptive to what we're hearing and we respond in a way that brings what God desires those words to bring in our lives.

What kind of soil is your heart right now?

The Danger of Using Labels to Put People in Boxes

We live in a society that gives us labels and defines us by them. Often those labels are true, but they are only a part of who we are. They only describe one aspect of us.

The labels can be helpful, but they become a problem when we use them to put people in a box and try to keep them there. Or when we only have a few boxes to put people in, and someone comes along who doesn't fit in our pre-determined boxes. That's when we can do great damage with the labels we use.

None of us can be completely understood or defined by only one label, because none of us are just one thing. We're a different selection of the labels we could use that only work when we look at the unique combination of them together - seeing how they all work together to make up who we are.

One of the labels I've often seen used in the church that can be harmful if used wrong is that of relationship status. I'm a part of an online community made up predominantly of Christian singles and this is something that comes up regularly. Many of us have had the experience of being unwelcome with those who are married, and in the process we've gotten lumped in with the college-aged in the church because that's where the other singles are - even though we're significantly older than them.

I fell incredibly blessed that this has only happened rarely in my church experience. But it's happened just enough that I know the pain is causes - both personally and from conversations that I've had with others who have experienced it. Leaving you feeling as if you don't belong anywhere because you don't fit with the pre-determined labels we've become comfortable with.

This is when our use of labels becomes harmful. Because it only looks at one part of who we are, instead of all of who we are. It just sees the label "single" and doesn't see the rest of the person for who they are.
So, how we avoid this danger? How do we avoid causing pain to others because of the labels we use?

Most importantly, we realize our need to be flexible with them. They may still be helpful sometimes, but we can't be so rigid with them that there's no room for adjustment. We need to take time to get to know more about people, so we're not putting them in a box based only on one aspect of them. This takes intentionality and work on our part. We have to actually invest in relationship with people.

We need to be willing to get to know people who look different than us from a first glance. What we see at first, may seem very different, but as we take the time to get to know them, we may discover that when we get past our surface-level labels, we have for more in common with them than we first thought.