floating on (selections from my homework)

On the third day of the Galilee field study we started out by floating out onto the Sea of Galilee. It was remarkable. It was rainy and chilly, but just to try to imagine myself in the position of the disciples was overwhelming. Unfortunately, I had to make sure I was sitting most of the time because I get motion sick so easily, but it was still enjoyable to watch my classmates taking pictures and to feel the waves slide so effortlessly under the boat. I can’t even fathom the fear that the disciples felt in the midst of the storm, even though the lake is not extremely huge and you wouldn’t think to look at the lake that it would be dangerous, I’m sure that their breath was swept from them as they look around frantically for ways to get the water from out of their small boat.
In my Children’s Ministry class last semester we had to teach a Bible lesson to third and fourth graders on the passage of Jesus calming the sea. We set up a couple of tables in the shape of a very bad looking boat and sprinkled water on the kids and made storm noises to get the greatest effect of the storm. Yeah, it wasn’t all that effective. But now that I’ve been in that body of water and swam in it and felt it and actually experienced it in some small way, thinking about my measly table set up made me feel quite pathetic. How do you illustrate to a bunch of eight year olds the importance of trusting in the almighty power of God when times get rough through two tables leaned up against each other? To demonstrate the fear that penetrated the hearts of the men with Jesus; the fear that this sea, which was personified in the Canaanite god “Chaos,” was most surely going to take their lives?
The job description of Jesus’ disciples: 1-He wants you and 2-To be with him. How powerful is that? So many times I am concentrating so hard on how to work out my salvation with awe and reverence, that I forget completely who I am supposed to be in awe of and who I am to be revering. Not myself. But the being that has the ability to show himself in any way that he wants, and he chose to come to earth in our form. He chose to gather up a group of men so unlike himself and dysfunctional. I feel like I’m so much better than them sometimes. How arrogant can I become? I feel like from day to day my love for myself grows slowly inside my without me knowing it until I hear the words that come from my mouth or realize the thoughts that flash across my head. It brings me back to my childhood when I would just spout out whatever ran across my head, no filtering system involved, and every time my mother would tell me to go read James. I never did. Oh, how I wish I would have, so that the truth of God’s breath would spread out across my heart instead of my own desires. When will I realize that Jesus wants me? That he just wants me to be with him? Those are the only details to my job.