Don't You Care That We're Drowning?

When chaos ensues and we seemingly can't control much of anything.

The disciples’ question might sound familiar: Don’t you care that we’re drowning? Often questions posed to Jesus in the gospels are primarily theological in nature. This is not one of those. It is a cry born of fear, exhaustion, and an absolute feeling of no control. The storm is real and its effects are being felt immediately. The boat is filling with water.

And Jesus is asleep.

Faith, in this moment, does not sound composed or confident. It sounds desperate.

We want a God who does something. What isn’t always apparent is how that help is going to come. Or when it is going to come. Jesus is present, but not reactive. Why not?

And when he finally speaks, the storm responds immediately. Couldn’t he have done it all along? But instead of reassurance, Jesus turns the question back on them.

Why are you afraid?

He is not denying the storm. He is asking what they believe his presence means in the midst of it.

James presses this question further. What good is faith, he asks, if it remains only a claim when life is unraveling? Faith is not proven by correct statements or inner conviction alone, but by how we live when circumstances overwhelm us. That does not mean faith always knows what to do. Sometimes faith is simply refusing to abandon the boat, refusing to stop calling out, refusing to believe that chaos has the final word.

Even as it ensues.

These passages do not offer us a cure-all formula for calm or a guarantee of immediate rescue. They tell us something harder and more honest: faith in chaotic times may look like trust without clarity, persistence without control, and obedience without certainty. The storm still rages. The fear is still real. But Jesus is in the boat. And that, even when it feels insufficient, is where faith begins.

Mark 4:35-41

Later that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” They left the crowd and took him in the boat just as he was. Other boats followed along.

Gale-force winds arose, and waves crashed against the boat so that the boat was swamped. But Jesus was in the rear of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re drowning?”

He got up and gave orders to the wind, and he said to the lake, “Silence! Be still!” The wind settled down and there was a great calm. Jesus asked them, “Why are you frightened? Don’t you have faith yet?”

Overcome with awe, they said to each other, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

James 2:14

My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it?

Prayer

God,

Thank you for the beauty of this January day. It almost even feels like the early cold days of spring. I know it’s not. I’m just choosing to be positive.

In the midst of all that’s going on, I want to press in on faithfulness to the person and character of Jesus. By your presence and grace, so help me, God.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.