Let Christ Get Into Your Boat

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In Mark’s gospel, the apostles are rowing their boat with the winds blowing against them. They’re straining at the oars – anyone who has rowed or paddled against the wind can relate to this! Then, they see Christ walking on the water and they’re terrified. As He walks toward them, He tells them He’s with them so there’s nothing to be afraid of. He gets into their boat and the wind stops. Why didn’t Christ stop the wind first? He wanted them to learn that He’d be with them during any trial, and that no obstacle could stop Him. 

He wants us to learn from this, too. Just as He saw the apostles’ fight against the wind, Christ sees our struggles, too. He makes Himself available to us to calm our fears. Do we let Him get into our boat? And how do we do this? 

We recognize, first, that fear babbles at us and tries to keep our minds fixed on everything that can go wrong or everything we’ve done wrong. In contrast, faith lets us keep our focus on Christ’s love for us. Faith gives us the courage to believe and trust that He’s with us, and will stay with us, and that He’ll calm the storms around and within us. Later in the passage, Mark points out that they crossed the lake and landed at Gennesaret. So we know that, after Christ got into their boat, the apostles continued to row until they reached the shore. So faith lets us say, “OK, God, everything’s in Your hands. I’m going to keep rowing; I ask You to guide me in the direction You want me to go.” Our job is to listen and then act when we sense Him steering us in a particular direction.

It’s this turning to Christ, this asking Him to guide us, that frees us from our fears of the fierce winds we’re battling. We recognize that maybe the only thing in our control is how we ‘row our boat’ while the winds blow. We can row frantically on our own and let ourselves be filled with anxiety, or we can row steadily, trusting Christ to be with us and lead us, not allowing fear to overwhelm us. 

We can’t ignore our struggles, just as the apostles couldn’t ignore the wind. Like the apostles, we let Christ into our ‘boat’ – whatever situation we find ourselves in – and continue to row with Him by our side. We ask Him to calm the storm that’s raging in and around us. We listen for His direction and act accordingly. And in doing all of this, we open our hearts to His peace. 

“‘Then He saw that they were tossed about while rowing… and said to them, ‘Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!’ He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.” – Mark 6:48, 50-51

“Lord, stay with me. Guide me. Let me experience Your peace.”

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

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P.S.

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