Rooted · Week 2 · Sunday

Take Heart

Week 2. Same storm, deeper water.

Last week in Rooted we learned that joy is the power to endure a trial, and that we do not get to choose the storm, only who we become in it. This week the question gets more personal and harder. While the wind is still against us and the boat is still pitching, where exactly is God?

Matthew 14 gives us the answer in a scene no one who has been through a hard night ever forgets.

The Boat in the Dark

Jesus sends his disciples out onto the sea ahead of him. A storm comes up. And by the middle of the night they are a long way from land, beaten by the waves, straining at the oars, getting nowhere, and afraid. And here is the part that stings. Jesus is not in the boat with them. He put them out there, and then he was not in the boat.

But he was never gone. He was up on the mountain praying, and then he came to them in a way only God could.

He walked out onto the very water that was trying to drown them. The storm that was their terror was his sidewalk. And when they cried out in fear, certain he was a ghost, he said the words this whole week is built on.

The Name Over the Waves

That little phrase, “it is I,” is far bigger than it looks in English. In the Greek it is ego eimi, I AM, the exact name God gave Moses from the burning bush. Jesus is not just identifying himself so they will relax. He is speaking the name of God over the storm while he stands on top of it. I AM is here. That is the answer to where God is in the wind.

He Doesn’t Calm It First

Now catch what he does not do. He does not still the storm before he speaks. The wind is still howling and the waves are still high when he says do not be afraid. The peace he offers is not the peace of a calm sea. It is the peace of his presence in a sea that is anything but calm.

That matters, because our idea of peace is usually just the absence of trouble. But remember what peace actually is. It is not merely calm. It is whole, complete, lacking nothing, content. And that kind of peace does not depend on the wind dying down. It depends on who is walking toward you across the water. This week we learn to find him in the storm instead of only begging him to end it. Keep your eyes on Him, not the wind.

Tomorrow · Even Jesus Grieved