Master, The Tempest Is Raging-Beware, The Number Nine Sea!

Mark 6:51..and He got into the boat with them and the wind ceased and 

                  they were utterly astounded.  ESV

During my years in the Coast Guard, my cutter spent roughly a month at a time sailing around a ten square mile grid (ocean stations) in one of the five geographic locations in the North Atlantic.  Each year we did about six of those assignments that ranged from the Straights of Labrador to Cuba. On one of the northern most station assignments we experienced abnormally severe cold and icing to the degree that “all hands” had to man the decks with hammers and baseball bats to chip away the ice before we got so top heavy that we would literally roll over and sink!  Ultimately we were “relieved early” by another cutter because the ice had damaged two of our life boats and we were still unable to lighten the ships’ weight enough for safety.

We headed south toward warmer weather which, it would turn out, didn’t happen before we encountered some of the worst seas we had ever experienced. Violent seas were generally “rated” by sailors in a series of numbers ranging from one to nine, with nine being the one few, if any, survived.  Anxiousness, yes FEAR, arose among the crew as we were battered about by raging swells, nearly hurricane force winds and, suddenly, at six AM, the sound of the main deck in front of the five-inch gun mount splitting from port to starboard!  We were experiencing a number nine sea!  Abject fear, little hope and not enough lifeboats!  Immediately we were “piped” to general stations, the ship turned around with the stern into the winds, and the heroic damage control team set about welding the forward deck with metal plates, all the while in the midst of the sea’s tumult!  We survived to tell of god’s Grace!

Sometimes we have life experiences, similar to the raging tempest, sea billows tossing dangerously ‘to and fro,’ and sensing that we have no lifeboats.  We have mortgages, children creating college bills, critical illnesses and associated bills, national elections, all causing turmoil and upheaval. We are so overwhelmed by the storms of life that we want to “jettison the cargo, with all hope of being saved - at last abandoned (Acts27:18-20.”)  We fear that our Master may be sleeping while we are being sucked into the abyss.  (“Teacher, do you not know that we are perishing?” Mk 4:38.) When beset by these winds and waves, we are reminded that our Savior himself uttered these words – “Peace, be still!” (Mk 4:39)

We can be the ones to live and tell of having survived the “number nine seas” of our lives if we grasp the life ring of faith offered by our compassionate Lord.  We need to be reminded that we are not “the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls (Invictus)” but rather, the Holy Spirit led mates pulling oars on our course toward “peaceful shores and calling it Heaven” (Wyrtzen)

             

“The winds and the waves shall obey my will, peace, peace, peace be still.

               Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, or demons or men or whatever it be.

               No water can swallow the ship where lies the Master of oceans and earth and skies.”

               (James Cleveland)