The desperate cry
They did not keep in mind his power,
Or the day when he redeemed them from the foe. Psalm 78:42
Read Matthew 8:23—27
I’ll listen in tonight to the disciples of Jesus, tossed around like Jonah and the crew of his ship. ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ We are. There are so many scrapes I get myself into, where this is the perfectly appropriate prayer. Not thought out. Straight from my need to the Lord. I notice that in this case, when the disciples’ prayer is answered, they blurt out, ‘So, who’s this? Really? Like, we asked him to step in and save us, as though he could, and he did! Even the winds and the sea are under his control. So who is he? Obviously more than we ever thought.’ For my part, I may never know this ‘more’ that Jesus is until I face my own helplessness and really cry out to him in that kind of desperation.
Lord, even the winds and the seas obey you. My friends, your disciples, made a discovery for me in that boat. They only found you at the level they did when it was all up with them. Their lives were about to be lost. Then they found themselves in your hands. Their whole desperate situation was in your hands. They had no idea who you were going to become to them when they cried out to you. Where else could they go? Who else could help? So they learned fretfully that you are the Lord of all earth and sea. Now here I am. You know the waves that beat against my little dinghy and the winds that roar around, and I know that I must also cry, ‘Lord, save me!’ I cry it now, so that I may really know who you are.