Imagine Jesus' disciples on the open water, rowing feverishly to keep their boat afloat—no small task when everything is pitching like a rodeo bull. Quite a night!

Mark indicates that this trip was Jesus' idea in the first place. He'd suggested it; then he had curled up and gone to sleep. Why would Jesus lead his disciples into a crisis like that?

This was no accident. While the disciples were following Jesus in his teaching ministry, Jesus was a step ahead, preparing them for continuing his work later. They could not have imagined Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension (Mark 15-16; Acts 1), or the coming of his Holy Spirit, who would lead them to bring the gospel across the Roman Empire (Acts 2-28). No, at this point they just wanted to survive the storm and see their families again. Little did they know....

Jesus' followers had a lot to learn: the kinds of things they could discover only in storms. It's one thing to tell a group of fishermen about Christ's ­power; it's another to show them. What seemed at first to be just a real­ly bad night was actually an opportunity to experience something about Christ that no one could have explained with mere words.

Jesus led them into a storm so that they could squint and see him like never before.

What has the Lord shown you about himself in stormy times?