After two years of COVID I expect a lot of us can identify with Jesus’ disciples, caught in a vulnerable fishing boat, out on the lake, in the middle of a storm. Whether it’s been two years of overwork, underwork, financial crises, redundancy, making others redundant, bereavement, social isolation, or the current fear of returning to ‘normal’, it has often felt like one wave after another crashing over us. Our friends in the boat are struggling just as hard as we are to bail the water out. And in the distance, we can see other boats facing their own storms – war and conflict, famine, floods and increased COVID cases without the protection of vaccines.
Many of us feel exhausted. I expect we’d quite like to be curled up asleep like Jesus. But instead, we’re desperately trying to stop the boat from sinking, while shouting at Him to wake up.
Is God awake? Does He care? Should we be hammering on His door like the persistent widow, or faithfully trusting that the storm will be calmed and we’ll safely reach shore? Maybe both at the same time?
I don’t have answers. But here are some of the things that keep me going. I look back at the storms I’ve been through before, and remind myself of God’s faithfulness. I look around at the people next to me in the boat, not always the people I expect, and give thanks that they’re with me. And I look down, where Jesus is sleeping, and remember that despite knowing the storms that lay ahead, he still chose to get into the boat with us.
Susannah Woodd
