Becky Crenshaw

Jesus & Joe: A Coffee Devotional

As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.

Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  Mark 4:35-4

It was primetime for after school pick up.  A few minutes past three o’clock, my ’07 Odyssey was to the brim with little Crenshaws, a carpool buddy and my dear friend Bethany from church.

We trekked from school across town as a dark cloud made its way over Knoxville – thick with gray and rain and full of messy traffic potential.

And did it ever produce a mess.

Sheets of rain began to pour on the twisting back roads of our community.  Lightening struck hard and close.  Like right beside my minivan,  close.  Each roll of thunder causing my knuckles to grow white.

“I don’t do well in storms.” I said. (Remember?)

Bethany looked at me, “Do you want me to drive?”

“No, I can do this. If I can just get to Trey’s house I will sit and wait on the storm to pass.”

The tall mature trees swayed all around, the rain poured buckets with aggressive strength – A fierce pop of storm, literally, out of the clear blue sky.

I was preaching the Little Engine That Could and Philippians 4:13 under my breath. These two seemed fitting.  And similar enough. Reminding myself that I have nothing to fear.  I can do all things.

And remembering my sweet mama always said “A vehicle is the safest place to be in a storm.”  The rubber wheels and all.

(People, did she make that up?  Lordy, I hope not.  I was bankin’ on it this day.)

Then Bethany, my co-pilot said these blog-worthy-words.

“Just think.  If Jesus was here, He’d be asleep in the back.”

{Que – Belly laugh}

Her words, poignant in this moment.  As I felt the “high waves breaking into our boat, filling it with water.”

And then, the best part, I imagined Jesus, in my van.  In this storm.  His long linen robe draped over my gray leather seats, his head on a cushion. Or a pillow pet.  His brown-strapped sandals on the floor mat beside Ethan’s football cleats.

Jesus in the back of my Odyssey, sleeping.  And I, His disciple, white-knuckled in the front of the boat, thinking we are about to die. “Jesus!  Don’t you care we are about to drown?!”

And His gentle response….”Becky, why are you afraid?”

I don’t know?!  Why was I afraid?  Can’t I remember the past 37 years of His faithfulness to me? Had I forgotten that He causes the wind and rain and the storm to rise and cease? Don’t I know that it wasn’t the rubber tires on my mom’s car, after all?

It is Jesus that calms the storm.  In my boat.  In my van.  In my heart.

“Be still.”  He says.  Every time.

“Oh Becky, do you still have no faith?”

The grip on my steering wheel and the pounding of my heart answers Him, “I guess not much.”

Are the waves crashing in your boat today?  Do you feel you are drowning in life’s storm?

“Just think. If Jesus were here, He’d be asleep in the back.”

He is with you.  And He sleeps not because He doesn’t care.  But because there’s nothing to fear.

You will make it to your destination.  Your waves will calm.  Your storm will cease.

And not because you are The Little Engine That Could.

But because He is the God who can.