Today’s scripture: Mark 6:45-56 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message)
As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two.
My thoughts (Tommy Chittenden):
It’s 3:00 in the morning! You roll over in bed, the bed you’ve been lying in, awake, for almost three hours. While your body told you it was time to go to sleep, your mind obviously had another agenda. As a matter of fact, there is an entire meeting going on in your head, and everyone in attendance is getting louder and louder. Chaos reigns as a seemingly endless number of tangents sprang from what you thought was just a single unresolved concern…
- How am I going to make the car payment this month?
- If things don’t get better this month, I might not have a job the next!
- I probably need to see a doctor; something is just not right inside.
- In just a few weeks she will graduate and then leave for college. Will she be able to cope with all of the new pressures?
- We haven’t had a moment of intimacy in weeks. How long before he tells me “he doesn’t love me anymore”?
- I want to tell Mom I’m gay, but if I do she’ll insist I tell Dad. I can’t do that.
- God, why am I in this body? It doesn’t belong to me. I am not a man.
- Maybe I should just pour me a drink and put in a “video” (but I listed both of those in the “Mystery Block” of my Soul Care Plan as commitments to change).
Teachable moments! Mark specifically tells us, “Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him.” Jesus then goes to the mountainside to pray. The Master surely prayed for His disciples knowing that as the winds buffeted the boat, the opportunity for fear or faith to prevail in their hearts was at hand. Which would it be?
Teachable moments! How many hours or days or even weeks will we allow the winds (i.e. chaos in our mind) to create fear and anxiety? When it seems all is lost, fear blinds our eyes and we choose not to see the solution that is standing right before us! Be still! Listen to the Voice of Love saying, “Take courage, it is I. Don’t be afraid.”
To put it in the context of the tossing and turnings of life — know that you have been empowered as the Chairman of the Board. Call that chaos in your head to order! Tell those thoughts, “one at a time!” Extend the Power of Love to each one and BE LOVE. First to yourself and then to one another!
Thought for the day: God, no matter what watch of the night it is in my life, help me to remember that You have empowered me, through Christ, to calm the winds of chaos. It is a choice.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.