There’s truth to Simon Sinek’s proposition that “most things break in the middle.” However, while Sinek discusses the pressure faced by middle management negotiating issues wedged in-between corporate higher-ups (strategic decision-makers) and lower-level (tactile) managers, the idea has significance for all of us, especially creative folk, who start off great on a project but then are tempted to give up midway, often at critical junctures often just before major creative breakthroughs.
In reality, something needs to break before a breakthrough…I guess I’m writing this as a way to encourage myself even as I am sharing it with you.
The Gospel of Mark illustrates how one day when Jesus was teaching beside the sea, the crowds had gone away and he was explaining to his disciples and some others with them the true meaning of the parables he had shared with them. And soon after, he puts them to the test!
As the story goes, later that evening, Jesus says, “Let us go across to the other side” (italics mine). The disciples and others in boats do so. However, midway a great windstorm arose and water began to break into the boat; it was quickly filling up the boat! Now, according to some, the storm was not necessarily unexpected for the time and season. Nevertheless, it did provoke fear and panic in the disciples. And to top it all, Jesus was lying asleep in the boat! The disciples of course cry out to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus awoke and “rebuked” the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then he reproves the disciples for having no faith and for being cowards.
What can we learn from the above episode? It’s hard to tell. What did Jesus expect the disciples to do–not wake him up? Not panic? I can’t imagine. Further, did Jesus expect his disciples to know that with him in the boat, there were not going to sink? There’s no telling what might have happened if in reality the disciples did not wake Jesus. Would that have demonstrated “faith”?
Right before this episode, we learn that Jesus “explained” to his disciples in private everything about the parables that he was sharing with the public at large. But what if no amount of explaining was enough for what Jesus was trying to communicate to his disciples? Apparently the disciples, like myself…maybe all of us, needed a radical breakthrough in their way of thinking and behaviour that could not be explained in mere words. They had to experience it.
But what did they need to learn through such an experience? What we all could learn from life threatening experiences I suppose: The One who has commissioned us to go to “the other side” will ensure that we indeed will get to “the other side.”
Again, panic or not, we just need to believe that when the Creator God–whose creative palette includes the wind and the sea at his command–invites us to go with him to the other side, he will also see to it at any cost that we do reach the other side. I only need to believe.
“Storms” are always unwelcome especially for those who are unprepared and caught right in the middle of it. The fact of the matter is no one is ever fully prepared for every storm in life. Let’s face it. Who was prepared for the Coronavirus? Fascinatingly, throughout the Gospel of Mark we read how the demons recognised Jesus and were rebuked by him. When forces beyond our control threaten to destroy us, we can be sure that Jesus is able to, with a word, rebuke the forces that prevent us from accomplishing his will.
The question is, why am I in the “boat” in the first place? Is it merely to do my own thing? Follow my own dream? If so, then am I willing to take the responsibility for myself and whoever is with me on the boat? But if I am in the boat in obedience to God’s direction, then things could be different…just saying…
…PRAYing:
LORD JESUS FOLLOWING YOU TO THE OTHER SIDE IS NOT EASY. YOU NEVER SAID IT WOULD BE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRESENCE WITH ME THROUGH THE STORM. YOU WILL BRING ME SAFELY TO THE OTHER SIDE. GRANT ME THE FAITH TO NOT FEAR THE STORM BUT TO REMIND THE STORM TO FEAR YOU. PLEASE GRANT ME the WISDOM AND STRENGTH TO BE FAITHFUL WITH WHAT YOU HAVE ENTRUSTED TO ME AND TO COUNT ON YOU TO HELP ME TO ENDURE AND TO PERSIST IN ACCOMPLISHING THE TASK YOU HAVE GIVEN ME TO DO–TO JOURNEY TO THE OTHER SIDE. IN JESUS’ NAME. AMEN.
