"Navigating the Storm" by Jason Edwards

Why did we spend Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday offering opportunities for us to learn and experience contemplative prayer? In general, these practices always offer ways for us to grow as followers of Christ and in relationship with Christ. Specifically, this was prompted by the season we’re in and the one that awaits us. How?

I’m reminded of a moment in Mark’s gospel. Jesus spent the day with his disciples and others teaching about the Kingdom of God, and then...

…when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4: 35 – 41)

Jesus’ ability to calm chaos with his words (a moment reminiscent of God using words to create order out of chaos in Genesis 1) is often the element of this story that elicits our immediate attention. The promise of God’s ability to speak order into all kinds of chaos is certainly a hopeful one now. However, we also shouldn’t miss the moment before that moment, the one where Jesus embodies the way of being he seems to hope his followers will one day find. Before Jesus calmed the storm, Jesus was calm in the storm.

Near the beginning of this pandemic, I heard people say, “We are not all in the same boat. We are in different boats in the same storm.” This is correct and a worthy remembrance. All of us have faced and continue to face challenges that are both similar and altogether different from others. We are in varying kinds of lifeboats, in the midst of a monstrous, global storm.

We’ve all navigated incredible challenges, and more lie ahead. One kind of challenge for us as a church will be navigating each of our own ideas, expectations and emotions as we all make and implement important decisions in response to ever-changing conditions. We are about to move into a season of increasing and evolving in-person engagement, which is so exciting and hopeful. (And by the way, we will need a large and growing group of volunteers to accomplish this.)

In the midst of all of this, we will be our best self as a church, if all of us will be intentional about nurturing (through contemplative prayer practices) a deep, centered connection with Christ. This will both support our continued growth, and our ability to remain, like Jesus, calm and connected in the midst of the storm. I believe, if we’ll do this, we will more than survive the days ahead, we will thrive in and beyond them.

With love and hope

Jason