“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” Mark 4:39

Florida in the winter time is interesting. It is not uncommon to turn the ‘heat’ on in the evening, only to flip the switch to ‘air conditioning’ in the early afternoon. Looking out the window, it can LOOK beautiful, warm and sunny, but FEEL chilly. But yesterday, from our front patio, it felt beautiful AND warm. Since we had some time on our hands, I asked my wife if she would like to go kayaking. So we did.

Paddling out to the end of the canal, we could go left or right. It was easy to see that the tide was going out, but HAD been for a while, since the water was low. We took a right and allowed the water to move us along. I figured it wouldn’t be long before the current would stop or change for our return. It was perfect. Until we reversed course and it wasn’t.

We really hadn’t noticed that there was a gusting wind that followed with the current… that is until we turned around. When the wind hit us, small whitecaps splashed against our bows. Not only were we going to have to REALLY WORK to get back, we were going to get wet as well. We hadn’t expected THOSE conditions! It reminded me of the story when the disciples hadn’t either!

It’s all there in Mark 4. Jesus had a desire to go to the other side of the lake, left the navigational issues to his team…then took a nap! Soon, rough turned to dangerous, and Jesus wasn’t even awake to notice. So His disciples woke Him to give the fearful news. FIRST he rebuked the wind… THEN He rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. It is hard to determine whether it was the wind or His ire that caused them to fear the most.

Like Florida in the winter, the Christian Life can be really interesting at times. Sometimes life can become difficult. On the water we had choices. We could blame God for causing the problem in the first place. I could shout at the wind in the Name of Jesus, “Peace, be still!” Or I could look to and thank God for the strength to row, row, row my boat!

I have learned that blaming and screaming don’t really get me very far. But trusting and relying on Christ to be there with me in the storm seems to get me where I need to go. When it was all said and done, we actually got a workout and had fun doing it. I could actually sense that because of our faith, Jesus was smiling right along with us!