Have you ever had a close call? Have you ever been in an accident where you almost died? Have you ever been overwhelmed by an event or loss so great that you wondered how you would ever get through it? When a close call came, have you ever felt that God either didn't care or that he was asleep because you couldn't reach him?

That is what is going on in our story, the story of the apostles in a little boat during a violent storm on a lake called Galilee where the wind rushes down from the hills with such velocity that even seasoned fishermen are sure they are going to die. This storm is called a "furious squall" in the NIV of the New Testament. The NRSV simply calls it "a great wind storm." Whatever you call it, it was one of those moments the men who experienced it would call a near-death…