A Calm Sea

In Matthew, the disciples climbed into a boat (very unlike the one above) and felt very secure. Why did they feel security? Because the sea was calm and quiet. You've experienced it before; gentle rolling waters lapping against the banks of a large lake. No thunderheads in the distance and no wind in the trees to cause any worry. But then the secure environment changed. The winds became stronger and the waves grew in size. Security gone.

Anxiety can be overwhelming. A difficult, present situation can keep us up at night. Sometimes it seems that there is nothing that we can do about it. We try listening to each breath and we only become more conscious that we are trying to make ourselves fall asleep. The television only places images in our mind that won't allow calmness to enter. Books can make us sleepy but they often serve as only a temporary fix. Before you know it, two hours have passed!

And who was asleep when the waves created anxiety and unrest on the boat? That's right....Jesus.

From a prison cell in 1944, facing certain death, Bonhoeffer wrote that only faith can sleep without a care, for sleep is a reminder of paradise. Faith has its security in God alone. The disciples could not sleep. The secuity was gone. That had little to hold on to. Theirs had been a false security that was only fear in a different dress. Such security does not overcome fear and soon disappears, for fear is only overcome by faith, which leaves behind all false securities, leaves them fallen and broken. Faith does not believe in itself, or in a favorable sea, or in favorable conditions, or in its own power, or in any other human power, but solely, completely in God-whether there are storms or not.

And the quote that just won't let go of me..."It is the only faith that is not superstition, that does not lead us back into fear, but rather frees us from fear."

First Baptist Church of Memphis has experienced a time of transition; a time of uncertainty. May we continue to place our faith in God alone and not in people or in a person. God has provided us calm seas but it is not the sea in which we place our trust. It is in God alone. And only through that type of faith can we rest with the confidence of Jesus. All other faith is merely superstition.