This week has felt like a battle against anxiety. It seems like every time I look at my newsfeed or talk with someone I can feel my anxiety rise. I even called my mom and asked her, “How do I stay up to date with the news but not become overwhelmed?” It feels like every day it’s getting worse. More people are laid off, people are dying, and we might have to stay in our houses for weeks. And I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know in my head that God says not to be anxious about anything, but the feeling in my chest is telling me different.
God reminded me of the passage in Luke 8:22-25, where Jesus was in the boat with his disciples and he fell asleep in the back. When the winds picked up, the disciples tried to handle it on their own. I can relate to the feeling, as I have thought that if I can survive social distancing, or have enough food in my cabinet and my emergency fund in the bank, then I’ll be able to weather this storm. But then in the passage the waves started getting bigger and these expert fishermen, who knew storms, were now terrified. I can only imagine this was a tsunami they were facing. They looked and saw their teacher ASLEEP in the back of the boat. They felt the same thing we might be feeling now, “Jesus, how can you be sleeping right now? Things look really bad and we are going to die. Don’t you care? Where are you in this? When will you wake up and do something?”
Jesus woke up, looked at them, went to the front of the boat and commanded the storm to stop. And the crazy thing is that the storm listened. Nature obeyed Jesus. There is nothing outside his control, not a tsunami or a virus that won’t stop at his command. And I love his response to his disciples. Because he doesn’t say, “Why did you doubt?” or “You should have had more faith.” Instead he says, “Where is your faith?” Where is it, as in take it out. This is the time to use it. This is the time to apply your faith and put your faith in action. And it’s the same for us. Jesus says, “I know the waves are getting bigger, but where is your faith? It’s time for you to take it out and use it.”
As an athlete, I can relate to this. I love going to practices and doing drills with my team to get better. But there is something completely different about a game against an opponent. It’s a time to use everything I have practiced and put it to the test. We are in a spiritual battle and this is game time.
What does this mean for us now? It means that we respond different from the rest of this world to our circumstances. Our life is secure with Jesus. Because we have this eternal hope, we can look different and act different now. We can care for others and not just ourselves, we can use our gifts of time and money to serve and love our neighbors.
The best part about this fight against anxiety was the disciple’s response to Jesus’ miracle. They turned and feared him. They said, “Who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey him?” They no longer feared the storm, they feared Him. This doesn’t mean they were afraid of Jesus. They just came to realize that the real power wasn’t in the storm, but in Jesus himself. This is the truth about fear and anxiety. Jesus doesn’t say that you should just stop being anxious or your fears aren’t valid. But he says we don’t need to be anxious because of WHO he is. He is Lord of the storm, Lord of this virus, Lord of death itself. And when we rest in that truth we no longer need to fear the storm.
So let’s take out our faith and apply it right now. We are in a battle against anxiety, sickness, job loss, and financial chaos. And the storm is getting bigger. But we are keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Lord of the storm.
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