The man who calmed the sea

My life has changed so much recently. Have you ever had those times in your life where everything seems to just jog along, then something happens & life changes completely, simply on meeting someone.

Well, it happened to me.

I was introduced to a man called Jesus, who had called my friends James & John to be his followers. When I heard his teaching, I wanted to be a follower too. It was like my life up to that point had been lived in monochrome and suddenly it was filled with the most glorious colours you could ever imagine. He taught things about life, about worrying, about judging people, about all sorts of things & what he said didn't just make sense, it fitted somehow in a way that all I'd heard beforehand just didn't seem to do!

After I began to follow him, I saw, not just heard some amazing things. I saw a man healed of leprosy, honest. Completely cured, instantly, by Jesus. Then there was a servant of a centurion that was healed with simply a word from Jesus, he didn't even go & see the servant! Then, Peter's mum-in-law was ill - Jesus healed her so quickly she was well enough to serve us dinner!

Nothing though prepared me for what happened just now though. He'd told the crowds we were going over to the other side of the lake. Well, naturally we got in the boat with him. It was Andrew & Peter's boat, a sturdy fishing boat like many others, plenty big enough for all of us.
We'd not got out very far at all when one of those storms rose up which happen on the Sea of Galilee - the ones you get no warning of, but are so ferocious you wished you'd never got on a boat in your life. Well it was one of those storms. It seemed the boat shrunk in proportion to the size of the waves which engulfed us, going right over the boat. Well I just followed what Peter & Andrew told me to do, we all did, well, I say all, but as I looked over to where we'd been sitting, I saw Jesus, fast asleep. Honestly, how anyone could possibly sleep through these kind of winds & waves, I don't know, but sleep he did!

None of us had time to think about it very long, but someone vocalised what we were all thinking & went & woke Jesus. 'Haven't you seen this storm? Don't you care that we're drowning?' Whatever I expected Jesus to say & do, I can tell you it was nothing to that which he said & did. His first words were ones of rebuke, 'Oh you of little faith, why do you doubt?'. Personally I wasn't at all sure what faith had to do with being caught in a storm & facing death, but I didn't have much time to think about it because his next two words 'Be still' transformed everything.

The storm just stopped. Completely. No wind, not even much of a breeze, the waves, merely ripples on the side of the boat, the evening sun breaking through the clouds. Well, we all just looked at each other, at the sea, at Jesus & at each other again. We were amazed, yes, but more than that, we began to ask who this man was. Seriously, who can command the wind & waves to stop & they do?

He saved our lives, no doubt about it, but I'm not sure now where I go from here with this Jesus. He is scary, wonderful scary, but scary nonetheless. All I know is that I can't walk away. I can't pretend life with Jesus isn't the most amazingly scary, unpredictable journey. It's all that & more, but I do know I couldn't, wouldn't want to be anywhere else, with anyone else or doing anything else than what I am doing with him, for I am a friend, a disciple of the man who calmed the sea!


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