Whats Rocking Your Boat?

Story

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. They set up their tent and fell asleep.

Some hours later, Holmes woke his faithful friend up.

"Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Watson replied, "I see millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" asked Holmes

Watson pondered for a minute.

"Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.

Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo.

Horologically, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the morning.

Theologically, it’s evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant.

Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. “

The after a pause, Watson said: “Well, Holmes, what does it tell you?"

Holmes was silent for a moment and then he said.

"Watson, can’t you see that someone has stolen our tent."

Link

Life is very complicated affair. Problems arise and issues occur in our lives that often place extreme pressures on us.

We often complicate things though. We often do what Watson did. Tried to reason and explain and analyze everything.

Satan tries to complicate even the most simplistic of problems just for the advantage of disillusionment we often face.

Our two readings this evening were both examples of where problems seemed unsolvable. But in both instances the resolutions was simple. Do we Watson or Holmes the solutions to our storms?

Critical Comment

You see if we liken our life’s problems to the storm.

WE

Like the disciples, we often become fearful when the storms of life howl and the waves threaten us because we think WE are in control. We think WE can save ourselves. We think WE can fix the problem on our own. We think WE have all the answers. We think it all hangs on US.

We keep one hand on the rudder, just in case God doesn’t know where he is going. We complicate things.

The disciples panicked. They thought they had to use their sailing skills or try to bail the water etc etc…. They placed undue pressure on themselves to solve the problem. They forgot that God was in control.

God is in Control

We often forget that.

We must remember in the storms of life, amid the chaos of suffering, through all the temptations that we face, in the unexpected hurricanes and tornados that blow against us, God IS present and God IS in control.

We may think he is asleep and he is going to leave us to drown or bail the water out of the boat ourselves, But we need to become faith-filled and not fear-filled.

Stress Management

2 vs 98

40% is spent worrying about things that never happen

35% is spent worrying about things that can not be changed

15% is spent worrying about things that turn out better than expected

8% is spent worrying about things that are so petty that they don’t matter at all.

We do much better when we fill ourselves with faith rather than fear. But How? Lets have a look at the story again. Lets have a look and see what we can learn from what happened that day on the boat.

How to rely on God as our Port from the Storm

This was no ordinary storm – They Panicked

They were panicked - "The disciples went and woke Him saying, `Lord, save us. We’re going to drown."

These guys were not novices. They’d been out on this sea lots of times. They’d been through many storms, but evidently this one was life threatening and had them scared.

Some of the disciples were experiences fisherman, they knew storms, but here they were scared. They had not been in a storm like this.

Mark describes it as “a furious squall” that came up and “the waves broke over the boat.” They were on the Sea of Galilee (as we can deduce from the first verse of the next Chapter). The Sea of Galilee is actually quite famous for the speed that these squalls spring up – coming down from the Mount Hermon range.

They had never seen a storm like this. Did Jesus bring this storm up specially did he make this storm to prove a point we don’t know. One thing is for sure the disciples thought… “We are goners! We’re gonna die!” That shows the intensity.

The word that describes the storm in this passage is the Greek word “seismos” from which we get the word “seismology” or “seismograph,” which is an instrument that registers the intensity of earthquakes. This was a major, major storm.

Because of that they panicked. They got uptight. They got afraid. That is our typical reaction when a storm comes. We make it a Watson problem.