Reflection for September 9, 2014

"A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep."(Matthew 8:24)

I have heard and probably said myself from time to time I'm just swamped.  That notion of feeling overwhelmed by all that there is to do on a given day.  Trying to sort through it all, determining what is a priority, what would be nice to get to, and also what will have to wait.

The problem with feeling swamped is that it usually affects one's abilities to sort through everything rationally.  Most of the time we just feel like quitting and going down with the ship.  We might ask for help if we are smart, maybe delegate some of the tasks to others.  But there is also the reality that there might be no one to delegate these things to.  Perhaps there aren't tasks at all, but things going on in our lives that overwhelm us emotionally and we feel "swamped and sinking."

We find in the next verse that Jesus was in that same boat, but apparently not feeling the same level of anxiety over the storm or the swamping of the boat.  He was so calm as to be asleep.  But when called upon, he took care of it.  I wonder if he was annoyed at being woken up.

In our lives when we have that feeling of perishing are we willing to wake up  our "sleeping Jesus."  My hope is that our conversations with him and his presence in our lives is such, that he hasn't fallen asleep and that we don't just wake him up, when we are in another fine mess.

Blessings,
Ed