Just a short time ago, a young homemaker and mother sat in my office telling me how she was feeling about her life. She said she felt she was adrift in a tiny boat in the middle of a great and surging ocean. How she had gotten into that boat and where she was going was a mystery to her. All she could see were the huge waves towering over her frail, little boat, threatening at any moment to swamp it and sink it, to swallow her up forever.

That young woman was depressed and afraid. Some of us can identify with her. Most of us have been afraid at some time. The disciples, too. They were frightened out of their wits in that boat. They probably wondered if they would die in the storm. Then how can Jesus ask them, "Why are you afraid?" How could anyone not be afraid in that situation?

I checke…