The Transition

Have you ever thought in your life, "where the heck am I, where am I going, and why am I not where I was?" If so, you are in what I like to call the "mean" time. This is a time of confusion, sometimes chaos, and utter distraught. This can also be a time for building a deeper relationship with God.


Before we look at the scripture for today, let me give a little review of what just happened:


Jesus just finished the miracle of feeding the 5,000 men (his disciples were also used in this miracle to help distribute and gather food.) 


In the scripture that follows and the scripture that precedes these scriptures lets imagine that the disciples are us.


Now lets look at some scripture:
Mark 6

⁴⁵ Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

 ⁴⁷ Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸ He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰ because they all saw him and were terrified.

   Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, ⁵² for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

 ⁵³ When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.




So we see, that the disciples, much like us, once knew where they were and what they were doing. When we read verses 47 & 48 though, we see that they are struggling, and have no clue where they are, where they are going, and how they are going to get there. 


This is so much like us. Sometimes things are going great, then suddenly BAM..... God is sending us to do something new, bigger, and better. Just like the disciples, we sometimes set sail without God. We find ourselves in the middle of nowhere, not knowing how we got there or how we are even going to reach the other side. This is where things start to get chaotic, crazy, insane, and causes us to become depressed. 
     But then we read the last part of 49, and the rest of verses 50 & 51. We see that the disciples cried out to Jesus and he said, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." Then climbing into the boat with the disciples, the wind died down. So essentially things stopped being chaotic. 


The disciples took time to call out to Jesus, to lean on Him, and when they were near to him, spending time with him (aka: reading your bible and praying), the wind calmed down. They finally made it to the other side. This is the same thing for us. When we are in the middle of no where, not having a clue how to get to the other side, and things are chaotic, it is time to call out to God, be near to him, and allow him to take care of us, calming everything down around us. 


It is important to note, that the bible never indicates an exact time the disciples made it to the other side, it just uses the word "when" in verse 53. I say this to tell you, just because you have God in the boat with you does not mean you are going to immediately make it to the other side. Use this time to build a deeper relationship with God, and when you do make it to the other side and step out of the boat on to dry land, the people all around you will see Jesus reflected in your life (verse 54). 


Fuse Team
~JT Sutton