Loving all things Muppets, I just had to share this collection of the Swedish Chef’s best moments. You can find them at Mental Floss.
Here’s one of the episodes: Enjoy!
When Jesus says “Shhhh….”
Last night around 2 AM, I was awakened by a nightmare. It felt so real, and it was of the worst variety. I stepped outside to get some air, and I noticed how dark the night was. Even with the street lights, there was a darkness permeating the atmosphere. In some ways I was awe-struck, in other ways I found it oppressive.
But it got me thinking about the story of Jesus calming the storm. I’ll enter the text below, in blue:
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, s“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Sometimes, we get so used to these stories as “flannel graph” stories (who remembers those??)–stories that we’ve heard dozens of times, and yet we miss the depth to the actual words. I think this story is an example of this.
There is something both tremendously comforting and greatly scary at the same time, when one thinks of the winds and the waves obeying the voice of Jesus. We can even see this is the disciples response. Think about how relieved they were when they were saved from the storm, and then look at the end of the story when the expressed great fear over who Jesus was, that “even the wind and the sea obey him.” Me too. I find myself in the company of the bewildered apostles.
And yet, what more do we want in a Savior than to be able to put our trust in Him, such as He admonishes the disciples to do. ( “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”) And yet we, too, could be asked the same question of our Jesus…..”Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?) At least, I know I could be asked that question, because I fear often, and I lack faith often. When will I learn?
Remarkable is the response of the sea and the wind. He quieted the storm. He caused the waves and the wind to stop with just a few words. They obeyed my Jesus. In essence, he told the winds and the wave “Shhhh. Be at peace. Be still. Be quiet.”
Jesus offers these same words to us. He tells me “Shhhh. Be at Peace. Be still. Be quiet.” Oh how I fight that, and yet oh how I long to hear him tell me “Shhh.”
Last night, after walking around outside at 2 AM, and thinking hard, I heard my Jesus tell me “shhh”. Not audibly, mind you, but in my soul. As my heart rate settled down, as I began to get chilly as the terrified sweat evaporated off of me into the night air, as I begged God for release from the nightmares that plague me, I knew that just as Jesus calmed the tempest of the storm, He is willing and able to calm the tempest of my mind and soul.
He says “Shhh” to me, “Peace be still”. Be still–a difficult thing to do. And yet when I am still, he grants me rest.
My Jesus says “Shhhh” to me. I need to to be obedient like the winds and the waves, and settle my soul with the help of my Savior and my God.
Not Even Worthy to Suffer For Christ Like That
Tonight as I perused my Google Reader articles, I read this paragraph below (featured on Zach Neilsen’s blog). A true gut punch: I’m not even worthy to suffer for Christ like this. And if you’d permit me, I’d dare say neither are you. Wow.
Visit rural Uganda and tell me with a straight face that God wants us to experience a life of ease and wealth, that he’s concerned about what kind of car we drive. It’s offensive to contemplate. More offensive to contemplate: say it in the face of the martyrs’ families in Nigeria who don’t even pray that their persecutors would stop, only that they would be able stand when their time comes. We’re not even worthy to suffer for Christ like that.
Any theology that leaves little room for suffering is a suspect theology. If Jesus himself experienced pain, loneliness, frustration, etc., then we should be ready for the same. If the apostles and the early Christians were willing to lay down their lives, certainly we should not expect uninterrupted peace and tranquility.
Psalm 83:1
83 O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
Sunday night. Discouraged.
Discouragement is such a strange thing. It can creep up on a person like a surprise attack from behind. That is what it feels like tonight. It can knock a person’s legs right out from underneath them.
I am holding on to this verse from Psalm 83 tonight. I am preaching to myself the things that I know are truth. There is a God. I am adopted into His family. His love for me is deeper than the ocean. He sees and knows. He sees and knows. He sees and knows.
Sometimes it seems as if God is so silent. That’s why this verse captured my mind and soul today while reading my daily Bible reading selection. We are invited by the Psalmists to look over their shoulders and read their jounalings, their prayers to the same God that we worship and pray to today. And in doing so, we find words for our own soul when perhaps our own words fail. That’s the case with this verse for me tonight. It expresses the longing of my heart to hear from my God, to experience His peace, to know that He is not still.
I am so thankful for God’s word. My faith at times is so weak, that I can’t envision faith at all apart from God’s word. I am thankful for friends, for family that encourage and pray for me daily. I am thankful for my crew, who give me reason to keep pushing forward. I am thankful that a day will come when we will all go Home and know a peace that supercedes even the peace that God grants us in this life.
83 O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!