One of my favorite Biblical stories is found in three of the gospels. It is the story of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Storms frequently occur and often without much notice on the Sea of Galilee, which is really a large lake. The cool air swoops in over the mountains from the Golan Heights and collides with the warmer air of the lake that can cause fierce storms at a moment’s notice. That is what happened one day when Jesus and the disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee and a storm threatened to swamp the boat. The disciples are bailing water as fast as they can when they notice Jesus has fallen asleep. They wake him up exclaiming, “Master, don’t you care that we are going to drown.” Jesus gets up, yawns and looks out over the water and the scripture says he “rebuked the wind and the waves and everything became calm.” He tells the disciples, “Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?”
You may be thinking, easy for Jesus to say, right? He’s the Son of God who sits the right hand of the Father. For the rest of us mortals…well, we all have fears. I know many people who won’t venture onto the water, even with a life jacket, because of their fear of the deep. What are you afraid of? Spiders, tornadoes, the dark? Personally, I do not like heights. My stomach gets queasy just looking over the railing of a tall building.
A few years ago, my family took a summer vacation to Chicago to escape the oppressive summer heat in Oklahoma. One of the big tourist destinations in the Windy City is the Willis Tower. When it was built in 1973, it was called the Sears Tower and at 1,450 feet, it was at that time the tallest building in the world. Naturally, we had to go and see it and ride the elevator to the 103rd floor where there is a skydeck. You can feel the building sway in the wind as you look out over Lake Michigan. Just writing about this memory is making my skin crawl, but wait, there’s more. In 2009, they added to the skydeck a glass box called the “Ledge”. It extends four feet out from the building overlooking Wacker Drive and you can stand on it and look down through the clear glass and the see the people and the cars below. At a height longer than four football fields down, they appear like ants. Of course, my kids wanted to stand on it and did, as you will see in the picture below. They tried to coax me out onto the ledge, but my fear kept me well away from the glass box.
When I find myself on a narrow path or bridge overlooking a deep ravine, I find myself unable to move. I am paralyzed with fear. Do you ever find yourself feeling that way when confronted with your fear? You can’t move or maybe you can hardly breathe.
Christ came to set us free from our fears. I am not saying you won’t be afraid the next time a Copperhead snake crosses your path. The fears I am thinking about include the fear of living or the fear of tomorrow. We are living in perilous times and the fear of the unknown can be paralyzing. Jesus calls to us through the ages and says, “Be encouraged, it is I, you don’t have to be afraid.” Christ will walk with us into tomorrow with all that it brings and that is good news. Just don’t ask me to walk out onto ledge!
– Rev. Dave Poteet, Pastor of Congregational Care
