One of the things I have come to understand in my journey back from waywardness, is to trust in Jesus. To trust that He will be there if I struggle and if I fall.  Not that this means I can not try and just wait for Him to fix things, but knowing He is there is enough.

It took me a long time to understand that. Someone once said that is it too bad we can’t be born old and get younger as we go along. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have had the knowledge and wisdom I have now 30 or 40 years ago. If I had read the Bible when I was a kid I certainly wouldn’t have made the choices I did and I would have learned some things I could have used, like Jesus is there to watch over us.

Mark 4:35-41 reads:

 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”  And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.  A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,“Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.  He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”  And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

I read this the other night and it came to me what this is all about, (that’s the whole with age comes wisdom thing). Had I read it 30 years ago I am not sure I would have understood it then. But I think I do now.

Jesus is telling his disciples to trust him, to have faith in him. He wouldn’t let the boat capsize, he wouldn’t let harm come to them. This is the same with us, we have to trust in Him and when we do he won’t let our boat capsize and we won’ drown. I think back to those dark days of mine, when I drank and was in some serious difficulties. But what I didn’t realize then, but do now, is that Jesus wasn’t going to let me fail. I never reached the point of no return, something would always happen to being me back, to get me to stop drinking and straighten my life out. Yes, I always fell back but never so far as I couldn’t come back. Now I understand this and why I never fell so far, I understand it was Jesus who was calming the storm.

We always will have troubles, bad things will happen, no matter how hard we try we can’t control everything in our lives, We don’t live in a vacuum, others are around us, many who don’t have the same end goals as we do. There will be storms, there will be rough seas, but as long as we realize  Jesus is there and  we have faith in Him, we will weather these storms. The wnd will cease and the seas will be calm again.

I see that in my life and you will in yours.