Safe All AlongSample

Feeling Stuck? As you read today’s passage from Mark 6, think about how tired the disciples in the boat must have been. They had been on their way to rest from weeks of ministry and were interrupted to serve loaves and fishes to a crowd of thousands. Their eyelids heavy, their limbs ach­ing, they climbed into the boat, only to face a windstorm in the middle of the night. The text doesn’t say how long the disciples were straining at the oars, pushing against the wind, but it does say that they were making no headway. I identified so deeply with the disciples as I battled my own anxiety recently. I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, but I wasn’t making any headway. I was tired. I was stuck. I felt that God was showing me that we can be tired and we can be stuck even when we have been faithful. It isn’t some kind of failure on my part or yours that led us to this anxious place; it is sim­ply the state of our fallen, broken world. I gained encouragement from the way Jesus approached the disciples that night in the boat. They were stuck. They were exhausted. They couldn’t find their way through. And Jesus went out to them. Friend, He comes to you and me in our struggles. In our stuck places. In our dark, anxious, hopeless places. He speaks to us in our sadness, in our panic, in our frantic grasping for control, telling us that we do not have to be afraid. And then Jesus climbed into the boat with them. Whatever you are battling today, whatever feels scary or impossible, I want you to imagine Jesus getting in the boat with you. First Peter 5:7 instructs us to cast all our anxieties on Jesus be­cause He cares for us. A God who comes to us, a God who speaks to us, a God who joins us in our trials and prom­ises to give us His perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). Close your eyes for a moment and think of your biggest struggle today. Imagine Jesus coming close to you. Getting in the boat with you. What does it feel like to be in the middle of your struggle but know that Jesus is there too?