Benjamin Franklin was one of the cleverest men of his generation. It is said that in the spring of 1772 Franklin attended a party thrown by Lord Shelburne at one of Shelburne’s estates. The other guests watched as Franklin approached a turbulent stream with his gold-headed bamboo cane in hand. He boasted to the other guests that he could calm the water. Franklin walked upstream about 100 yards. Waving his cane over the stream three times in the best abracadabra fashion, he stepped back, his feat accomplished. Soon he was basking in admiration as the other guests marveled at how he had miraculously made the rough surface of the water as smooth as glass. Franklin finally explained that he had simply spread oil on the troubled waters. He had released on the rough surface of the water a few drops of oil concealed in his hollow “magic cane.” (1)
It is an old trick used by sailors over the centuries. They have traditionally dumped barrels of oil into the sea to calm stormy waters. Interestingly enough these sailors may have been on to something, a new study suggests. Under certain circumstances, a small amount of oil spread over troubled waters (as the expression goes) may actually smooth the waters. In fact there is a new study that suggests that we might be able to decrease the intensity of hurricanes by spreading barrels of oil in their path. I should add that there is much disagreement among climatologists over whether this actually works or not. (2)
Having said that, I must add that there is one who did smooth troubled waters 2000 years ago without oil or resorting to any kind of trickery.
Jesus had spent a long day beside the Sea of Galilee teaching multitudes of people about the kingdom of God. Evening was coming on so Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side.” So they climbed into a small boat and started across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was tired and fell asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat. Suddenly a furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped.
We’re told that such storms are very common on the Sea of Galilee. The sea is more than six hundred feet below sea level. It is a relatively small body of water, ten miles long and four miles wide. However, it is about 150 feet deep. Because the sea is so far below sea level and is surrounded by mountains, students of the subject say it is particularly susceptible to sudden storms. Winds sweeping across the land come up and over the mountains, creating downdrafts over the water. Combined with thunderstorms that appear suddenly over the surrounding mountains, the water can stir into violent twenty-foot waves. The sea can be calm one minute and violent the next.
It is not surprising that the wind and the waves threatened to swamp the little boat occupied by Jesus and his disciples. The fishing boats used by Galilean fishermen at that time had low sides so that the men could cast and draw in their fishing nets. Such a boat could have been easily tossed about and, given the right circumstances, completely capsized by the wind and waves.
To make matters worse, these storms usually do not happen at night. That probably added to the discomfort felt by the disciples. Everything appears a little scarier after the sun has set. Remember that some of these disciples were seasoned fisherman accustomed to life on the sea, so you can appreciate the ferociousness of this storm. The disciples thought they might die. They were so frightened they woke Jesus who had somehow managed to sleep through it all. Almost panic stricken, they asked him, “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?”
Many of us have asked the same question at some time in our lives. A sudden storm arises in our life--a health or family crisis, the loss of a much needed job or whatever that storm might be--and Jesus seems to be asleep, and we want to ask, “Do you not care that we perish?” Of course he cares. But sometimes he may seem to be sleeping.
You see, everybody goes through storms at some time or another.
William Cowper certainly did. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him the best poet of his time.
And yet there came a time when his despair over his life was so great that he tried to end it all. He swallowed enough poison that should have killed him, but it didn’t. He then went to the Thames River, intending to hurl himself over the bridge. But something “strangely restrained” him.
The next morning he fell on a sharp knife--and broke the blade. Once again he survived. Failing in these attempts at suicide he tried to hang himself, but someone found him, took him down, found that he was just unconscious, and revived him.
Later he picked up a Bible and began to read the Book of Romans. It was then that Cowper finally met the God who calms storms, including the storms in his own life. It is obvious that Cowper wrote from these experiences when he penned these memorable words: “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.” (3)
Everyone sooner or later goes through a storm. It seems especially true in today’s world. There was an article in a national magazine sometime back that said depression and despair are at epidemic proportions in our society. According to recent statistics nearly 30,000 Americans kill themselves each year in overt acts of suicide. And another 100,000 attempt to take their own lives. Countless thousands more are killing themselves slowly by less obvious means such as overeating, alcohol and drug abuse, etc.
Do you remember that classic Victor Hugo story titled Ninety‑Three? A ship is caught in a raging storm. The frightened crew hears a terrible crashing sound below deck. Immediately, the sailors know what it is: a cannon has broken loose and is crashing into the ship’s side with every smashing blow of the sea! Two men, risking their lives, go into the inner hull and manage to fasten down the cannon so it can’t break loose again. The men are well aware that the unfastened cannon banging against the insides of the boat was far more dangerous than the raging storm on the outside of the boat.
So it is with people. Our greatest danger is not the external conditions that make up our environment but those storms that sometimes rage within. We can live in the biggest, most majestic house imaginable, we can live in the nicest, safest neighborhood--gated, underground utilities, beautifully landscaped--but if there is a cannon rolling around on the inside of our lives, we can be in mortal danger.
The worst part is that sometimes during the roughest part of the storm Jesus seems to be asleep. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time at all. You’ve gotten a lousy prognosis from the doctor, your spouse has told you that he or she wants a divorce, you get laid off, one of your children is mortally ill--quite naturally you fall on your knees before God as you have done many times before--but this time the silence is deafening. You pray and you pray some more, tears run down your face, the cannon is loose and it’s banging inside your chest--and nothing happens when you ask for divine help. You think to yourself, where IS God when I need Him?
There is a story about Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the internationally renowned medical missionary in Africa during the last century. Dr. Schweitzer had been in Africa for forty years. He had worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and he was totally exhausted.
One day he was sleeping on the porch and a person came to him and said, “I am sick. Wake up, Dr. Schweitzer.” Then the would-be patient added, “Don’t you care?”
Dr. Schweitzer had spent his whole life caring for people, day and night for forty years, and the patient cried out to him when he was taking a nap, “Don’t you care? (4)
All of us can look back over our lives and see a series of answered prayers, but all of that is forgotten when we encounter a truly horrible situation. “Why doesn’t God intervene?” we cry out in our distress. “Do you not care that we perish? Do my griefs and heartaches not matter? Is there anyone there who sees and understands?”
“Teacher, do you not care that we perish?” asked the frightened disciples. Every believer goes through a time like that sooner or later.
The brilliant Christian author C. S. Lewis had been married only four years when his wife, Joy, died of cancer. The couple was very much in love and Joy’s death was almost too much for C.S. to bear. He plunged into a deep depression and did the only thing he knew to do: he wrote. During that time he filled up several journals, which were later compiled and published under the title, A Grief Observed.
With the untimely death of his wife, C. S. Lewis’ unwavering faith was called into question. It seemed to him as though God had been wonderfully present in his life until this catastrophe struck. Soon after Joy’s death, Lewis wrote these words: “Where is God? When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be--or so it feels--welcomed with open arms. But to go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become . . . What can this mean? Why is God so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in times of trouble?” (5)
That is a question every generation of Christians has asked. Martin Luther, the founder of the Reformation, was known to have deep fits of depression. Nothing would help, even when he was able to translate the Bible into German. Listen to his words: “For more than a week I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all my members. Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and by blasphemy of God.” (6)
If two of the most notable believers of our faith can go through such times, what does it say about you and me? All of us go through storms. At such times it seems as if God is asleep.
But listen to the wonderful words of the Psalmist: “. . . he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you--the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm--he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”
The story in Mark’s Gospel is an affirmation--yes, Jesus does care. When the storms of life are raging, he does care. When it seems you cannot hold on a moment longer, he does care. When the waters threaten to engulf you, he does care.
The disciples rouse Jesus from his sleep, and he does what only the Master can do. He speaks to the wind and the waves and says, “Peace! be still!” And the wind ceases and there is a great calm. Then he turns to the disciples and asks, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
The central question in life is not how many storms we encounter. The question is whether we have faith for the storms. All of us will encounter storms. Sometimes it will seem as if God Himself has forsaken us. It is at such times that our faith will be critical.
The late John Claypool was one of America’s finest preachers. When he was at the height of his popularity as a pastor he lost his six-year-old daughter, Laura Lou, to a battle with leukemia. In his book Tracks of a Fellow Struggler he described how one evening while he was sitting alone in silence and filled with despair, he realized that he could either spend the rest of his life mourning the loss of his daughter whom he would never see grow up, graduate and get married, or he could look back in joy and say, “Thank you, God, for the gift of my daughter Laura Lou and the six best years of my life.” (7)
John Claypool chose to trust God with his storm. So can you and I. Do you believe in a God who loves you and has promised never to forsake you? Do you believe that, however dark the clouds may be, behind those clouds, the sun still shines? Do you believe that beyond every cross, there is an empty tomb? If you do, you can weather the storm, however severe. If you do not, today is the day to appropriate that faith for yourself.
1. Robert Hendrickson, American Literary Anecdotes (New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1990), p. 80.
2. Zeeya Merali, https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7726-oil-on-troubled-waters-may-stop-hurricanes/.
3. Henry Gariepy, Portraits of Perseverance (Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1989).
4. Edward F. Markquart, http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_tornado_time.htm.
5. Cited at http://www.christchurchsummit.org/Sermons-2006/060129-WhenGodSeemsSilent.html
6. Landon Winstead, Redefining Success (InspiringVoices, 2011).
7. Rev. Marek P. Zabriskie,