That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’
Mark 4:35-41 NIVUK
In the summer of 1998, I was on an outreach team based in the city of Cernavodă in south eastern Romania. It’s a little off the tourist trail. It has three claims to fame: an AIDS hospice for children, a nuclear power plant, and a canal dug by former Communist prisoners of conscience where it’s rumoured a hundred thousand people died and are buried underneath the concrete.
So don’t expect to see a lot of it on Instagram.
We had been asked by the church there to do some evangelism in an outlying village. So we set up our materials in the most central space we could find (which happened to be quite close to the Orthodox church) and some of the team set off to find people who would be interested in our programme.
A man came out and spoke to our leaders. Then he went inside the church and came out in the garb of an Orthodox priest. All of a sudden, he became animated and threatening. He said he would round up a mob to beat us up if we didn’t leave his village right away. He then went inside and began ringing the church bells to summon his violent mob.
We were really very anxious. Several of our team members had gone to speak to villagers and we didn’t know where they were.
Several of us set off to round them up, the church bells ringing loudly in our ears.
After a very anxious ten to fifteen minutes, we were all in our van, everything was packed away, and we left the village.
Our leader, Dan, was furious. What that priest had done was both ungodly and illegal – a real infringement on our rights to religious freedom and freedom of speech.
But Dan found a way to manifest his fury correctly. As we drove past fields on the way back to the city, he stopped the van every time we passed someone, gave them a Gospel leaflet and blessed them.
Later on, however, he had a wrong reaction. The risk we had been exposed to hit him hard. He ran from the apartment where we were eating and disappeared off for some time alone, really badly shaken by what had happened.
Our plans had been frustrated. But our purpose was not.
This is often the way of things in this life. We have a purpose to fulfil and we set out plans to meet it. But life happens. Things get in the way. And all of a sudden our purpose seems like a distant, and impossible, dream.
That is how I think the disciples felt that night when the storm hit. Things had been going so well. Jesus was so popular, and, through Him, so were they. Having had a spectacularly successful time on the western bank of Lake Galilee, they were headed over to its eastern shores. On the other side of the Lake lay the Decapolis – ten majority Greek cities under Roman protection that also had a significant Jewish population. The disciples might have assumed that they were moving from one area of significant ministry into another.
What they got was a storm that seemingly blew then off course towards a pagan, demonised man self-harming in a graveyard.
Not exactly what they would have expected.
Yet, at the same time, this is entirely fitting with Jesus’ purpose. He said this about Himself:
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’
Luke 19:10 NIVUK
Who could be more lost than a pagan demoniac?
So, you see, the storm might have taken them to a place they didn’t intend to be, and to a thoroughly unpleasant and intense situation, but it did not at all deviate them from the purpose of their ministry.
This is the power of a purpose. No storm can possibly distract from it.
When we have a strong God-given purpose, we treat popularity (or the lack of it) as a tool we use for a while and then let go. We don’t seek it. We don’t cling to it. We don’t count on it.
When we have a strong God-given purpose we rest on our pillows at an appropriate time for an appropriate length of time, because to do otherwise will prevent our purpose from being achieved. We don’t believe for a second that ‘I have to do it or no-one else will’, or ‘God can’t be trusted with my ministry’. No, we lie down in peace and safety and entrust the increase to God.
And neither are we afflicted by panic. Why? Because we trust that if God has given us our purpose then He will fulfil it. We ‘trust the boatman’ – the Divine Boatman – to lead us where He will.
It was a God-given purpose that led Jesus to minister in Galilee.
It was a God-given purpose that took Him onto the Lake.
It was a God-given purpose that was still being fulfilled, not only in the storm, and through the storm, but after the storm too.
I believe that Jesus gave the disciples the privilege of passing through this storm so that they might see Him for who He truly is. They caught a glimpse of it here, but the Bible is clear: they didn’t truly comprehend it until after Pentecost. And when they understood it, Jesus’ purpose became their purpose: they too understood the call to seek and save the lost.
When we live to fulfil a God-given purpose, no storm in life and no diversion will ever stop us from fulfilling it.
And there is no greater purpose that seeking and saving the lost.
The question is: is this our purpose too?
Questions
1. What is God's purpose for your life? How does it align with Jesus’ purpose for coming to earth?
2. What storms do you face that could potentially distract you from fulfilling God’s purpose for your life?
3. How can you maintain the right attitude when storms like this hit your life?
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