Skip to main content

He's In The Boat

"Hey, let's get in the boat and row to the other side of the lake! What d'ya think?"

We all agreed wholeheartedly. It was a beautiful night. "Great idea!"

We doused the fire, tossed our gear into the boat, then climbed in and pushed off. The sky was clear and inky black, sprinkled generously with brilliant stars, twinkling like the eyes of children at play. The surface of the lake was glass. It reflected the heavens above it. Gorgeous. Nature at its best.

Then without warning, a powerful gust of wind smacked the side of our boat, then another, and another! At the same time, clouds rushed the night sky and opened above us to release sheets of rain. Waves crashed down over and over and over! We scrambled around in a frenzy, bumping into each other, slipping, sliding as the boat rocked from side to side. We yelled! We cried out as waves knocked us off our feet! We frantically tried to bail the water that was so quickly filling the boat. As we rode a sudden giant swell, I lost my footing and slid, head first, down to the stern. I would have tumbled overboard had I not caught hold of the anchor as it lay coiled on the floor. I pulled myself up, and that's when I saw Him, incredibly, asleep. ASLEEP! Through this?! No way! I couldn't believe it. This whole boat ride was His idea too! I felt anger rise within me. Why wasn't He helping?! How could He sleep?! I yelled out my accusation above the raucous of the squall. "We're all about to die, and you're sleeping! This was Your idea!" He blinked open His eyes, but instead of apologizing, jumping up, and helping bail water, He calmly looked straight into my eyes. No, that's not quite it. He looked straight through my eyes, right to my soul and said, "Do you still have no confidence in Me?" Then He told the wind and the sea to be still . . . and they obeyed Him!

As the boat settled once again on calm waters, the sky cleared. The moon and the stars appeared, but I barely noticed. I couldn't take my eyes off Him. After all I've seen. After all I've heard. After all the time I've spent in His presence. When the storm came, not only did I not trust Him, I forgot Him! Completely. I was so worried, so frantic, so busy trying to save us that I'd forgotten He was even in the boat!

That's when I realized that He'd known. When He made the suggestion to cross the lake? He knew. He knew this storm was coming. We were never in danger of capsizing or being thrown overboard. He was in the boat. He was in the boat the whole time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Believing the Lies

My husband and I recently watched The Help - a story about a group of African American women who worked as maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the '60s. One of the protagonists works for a woman "who got no b'ness havin' babies." This woman, this family maid and nanny, tells her little two year old ward regularly, "You is pretty. You is smart. You is impor'ant." How difficult it is for us to believe that about ourselves - really, to believe anything good about ourselves. I always try to be my raw self when I write a blog post. Today is no exception. So I confess that I've been drowning in a storm of lies lately. My head knows they're lies, and I could easily tell anyone else in the same place that they're lies, but I haven't been able to get a grip. There have been so many of them coming at me at once. It seems that I just break the surface, gulp some fresh air of truth then get pulled back under. One thing I know: the enemy of our ...
7 comments
Read more

Tricia's Return (my first ICL assignment for 13-17 year olds)

I stormed down the hall and slammed the door. I’d had enough! Dumping my books out of my backpack, I began shoving in clothes – anything I could grab. I dug through the junk on the floor of my closet and found my stash – my life’s savings. I shoved it on top of my clothes. In the midst of this frenzy, I heard a soft knock on my door. "Tricia?" It was my mom. “What now?” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice. She was just going to launch into another tirade. Her list of my shortcomings was endless, and I didn’t want to hear them anymore. I didn’t open the door; I climbed out my window, backpack in tow, grabbed my bike and took off for the bus station. Jeremy didn’t know I was coming. He’d be so surprised. I couldn’t wait to see him! We’ve been together for a year; but since his family moved to St. Louis four months ago, we haven’t seen each other. We haven’t even been able to talk much He'd made the varsity soccer team; and with all the games and practices, he hadn’t h...
2 comments
Read more

Resting...Resting?

A few weeks ago, my husband and I had dinner with our daughter-in-law and two of our grand children. My daughter-in-law lost her job a couple of months ago. I wanted an update on current job prospects or plans, so I asked, "What are you doing these days?" Her answer was simple and yet incredibly profound.              Resting. (Is that even a word in the American lexicon?) I'm proud of her, and of them, for making the decision that it's time for her to rest. She's been in hyper-drive for all the years I've known her (over 16).  That word has haunted me since she spoke it. Resting. What would happen if I...if you...gave it a try?  In Psalm 23: 6a, David says Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. In K.J. Ramsey's The Lord is My   Courage (page 240), she tells us that our English word, "follow," doesn't convey the power behind the original Hebrew word that David used (radaph). She tells us that radaph means "to pursue, chase, and pers...
1 comment
Read more