Boats

I’m not sure where my problem with boats came from. I know why I hate to fly. One bad experience made me hate it. Not sure about boats but I think it is the “motion,” the rocking and swaying and bouncing over the waves when the boat goes fast. I will endure a boat ride to be with my family and friends but it is not my favorite. I don’t like rides at the fair or Disney or Six Flags either. Just not a “motion” for fun girl. :o)

When I read the account of the disciples in the boat when there was a “squaller” on the lake so intense that they thought they might drown…I can really “feel” their fear. I just love to read in scripture the actual words and actions of Jesus. Luke 8:24-25, “…He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. ‘Where is your faith?’ He asked the disciples.”

Years ago when my nephew was in a head on collision and I got the call that he was being airlifted to Richland Memorial, that was the most fearful and scared I have ever been. I had no legs. My stomach was sick. I trembled all over and heard a loud noise which I realized was me screaming but it was as if someone else was screaming…an out of body experience. It was like I was flying overhead watching it take place but somehow it was not a dream. It was real. I don’t think back on that time often. Why would I except to see God’s hand “calm the storm” all around me and inside of me.

The second storm that was a “raging squall” was the last three days of my mother’s life. Watching someone die…like she did… and to top it off…it was a woman I loved with every ounce of my being…the woman I shared everything with…the woman who wiped my tears…the woman who lived out loud and taught me how to value each day…the woman who was my best friend…my mother. To watch her suffer…was horrific. But not me nor my sister or my dad could imagine not being there by her side to watch the unthinkable. If you had asked me years ago if I could have sat and watched my mother die, my answer would have been a flat, “NO!”

But the most amazing thing happens when you know and have a growing relationship with the LORD. At the time you need it, “HE CALMS” even if the storm is raging. You feel as if you are in the eye of the storm where the calm resides.

Since my nephew’s accident I can see the years of my life and how God prepared me and matured me to face and hold my mother’s hand in death which now I see as a “gift” from HIM. While facing her death…and watching her take her last breath….HE washed a calm over me…..that I can’t explain other than He did the same thing when I watched them take my nephew out of the helicopter years ago. A calm from Jesus that I can’t manufacture in my own strength.

I just want to encourage you today…take steps toward Jesus…to seek Him, to Know Him…..to takes steps of obedience in your life with what He is telling you to do. YOU WILL SEE HIM. You will feel HIM. Then when the storms come, You will know to call out, “Master, Master.” But way before life’s scary times come…KNOW and experience Him in a way that you know that you know that “HE commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him.”

Seek God…invite Him to be the Lord of your life. Experience HIS commanding of your life and all that goes on around you.

Psalm 29:11, “The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace.”

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