Rooted · Week 2 · Saturday Recap

The Other Side

This week the boat finally made it to the other side, and I keep thinking about what happened the moment it did.

The Week in the Storm

We watched Jesus get the news of a brutal loss and withdraw to grieve, and still turn and have compassion on the crowd that followed him.

We saw that he was the one who put the disciples in that boat, that the storm was inside their obedience and not a sign they had failed.

We found him up on the mountain praying while they strained at the oars in the dark, and learned that he is interceding for us in that very same way right now.

We waited with them all the way into the fourth watch, the darkest hour of the night, and watched him come walking across the water, not early, not late.

And we watched Peter walk, then sink the instant his eyes slid off Jesus and onto the wind, and get caught immediately the second he cried out.

The storm was where they finally knew Him.

What the Storm Gave Them

And here is where the whole week lands.

They had been with Jesus for a while by now. But they had never worshiped him quite like this, never said truly you are the Son of God, back on the safe shore before they ever got in the boat. It took the wind, the waves, and the sight of him walking on the water for it to break open in them. The storm was not the thing that got in the way of them knowing him. The storm was the place they finally did.

What I’m Learning to Pray

We have four sons, ages thirteen to twenty-two, and for years my prayer for them was mostly just that God would keep the storms away. I still feel that. Every father does. But I am slowly learning to pray something better and braver than that. That when the wind comes for them, and it will come, they would not waste it looking for the exit, but would find him in it, and come out the other side knowing him in a way that calm, easy water could never have taught them.

The wind always ceases eventually. That is a promise, not a maybe. And the ones who kept their eyes on him through it do not just make it to shore. They get to the other side worshiping, having met the Son of God in the one place they never expected to find him. Keep your eyes on Him, not the wind.

Let your lifesong sing.

Rooted · Week 2 Complete · The series continues