December 18, 2025

Hey guys, I hope you're having a great week. This week’s Thought comes from Matthew 8:24, “Suddenly a fierce storm struck the lake with waves breaking into the boat, but Jesus was sleeping.” This is within the story of Jesus and His disciples getting caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. I can't tell you how many times I've read or taught this passage, or heard it taught. I've never, until this morning, understood or really paid attention to the juxtaposition of these intensely descriptive words. 

• Suddenly means unexpected, unplanned, unprepared. It can also be a source of stress.  

• Fierce is violent, dangerous, and scary. It’s unknown. 

• Struck carries the idea of being unexpected, a life threatening or a forceful situation. Waves breaking into the boat are a little bit different than waves breaking against the boat! Maybe you've been in a boat, and you've hit a wave, or a wake and it jerks you really bad. That's just waves hitting against the boat. These are waves that are going into the boat, meaning…if something doesn't change, we're going to sink and die here! These waves were life threatening. 

• Jesus was SLEEPING! That doesn't mean He doesn't care. It doesn't mean that He doesn't know what's going on. It means that the absolute worst situation that His disciples could find themselves, threatening their very lives, wasn’t even enough to wake Him up from his nap! Again, that's not a lack of concern, it's just simple peace in the fact that He knows He’s bigger than any storm we can face.

 As we walk into the holidays over the next few weeks, and we spend time with family and friends, and we have a chance to both look back and to look forward, remember, He’s bigger than any storm you can face! He's bigger than any trial that you're going to encounter or have encountered, and it doesn't scare Him. He's at peace enough to even take a nap amidst our greatest storms. Rest in that.  Love you guys,