Episode Transcript
CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
Mark 4:35–41 NIV
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were 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!”
CONSIDER THIS
The disciples are exactly where Jesus told them to go.
This matters. The storm is not the result of disobedience. It comes in the middle of faithfulness. Sometimes awakening does not happen because we went the wrong way, but because we trusted Jesus enough to get in the boat.
The storm rises quickly. Waves crash over the sides. The boat begins to fill. And Jesus is asleep.
That detail has always troubled me. Jesus is not anxious. He is not scrambling. He is not surprised. He sleeps.
The disciples wake him with a question that reveals their fear. “Don’t you care if we drown?”
Fear often interprets silence as absence. But Jesus’s calm is not indifference. It is authority at rest.
Jesus stands and speaks to the storm. “Quiet. Be still.” And immediately, everything changes.
Then Jesus turns to the disciples, not with anger, but with invitation. “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Jesus does not shame their fear. He exposes it. He wants them to see that trust is not the absence of storms, but confidence in his presence within them.
Awakening to trust does not mean we stop feeling afraid. It means we learn where to take our fear. We bring it to the one who commands wind and waves.
And notice the ending. The disciples are filled with awe. “Who is this?” Awakening often replaces fear with holy wonder. We begin to see Jesus not just as teacher or healer, but as Lord.
If you are in a storm today, hear this. Jesus is in the boat with you. And his presence is stronger than anything that threatens you.
PRAYER
Jesus, we confess how quickly fear rises in us. We bring you our questions, our anxiety, our sense of overwhelm. Speak your peace into the storms we cannot control. Teach us to trust your presence even when you seem silent. We choose faith over fear today. In your powerful name we pray, amen.
