When God Seems Too Calm About Your Crisis
You're in the middle of something hard. You've prayed. You've asked for help. And yet, God seems oddly relaxed about the whole thing — like He's missed the memo on how bad this actually is. If you've ever sat there thinking, don't you care?, you're in good company. The disciples thought the same thing in the middle of a storm bad enough to scare experienced fishermen.
This week at Crowd, Will Sopwith took us into Mark 4, where Jesus is asleep in a boat while the wind and waves are doing their best to drown everyone on board. It's a familiar story, but Will pulled out something we often miss. Faith isn't a magic charm that keeps the storm away. It's the discovery that Jesus is in the storm with us — and He isn't flustered by what threatens to tear us apart.
The Storm That Caught Them Off the Lake
The scene is straightforward. Jesus has been teaching by the lake all day, and as evening falls He says to His disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." So they push off. Jesus, exhausted from a long day, lies down in the stern on a cushion and falls asleep.
Then a furious squall comes up. The waves break over the boat. It's nearly swamped. These are men who fish for a living — they know boats and they know weather. If they're terrified, this isn't an everyday gust of wind.
They wake Jesus up with a question that has more edge to it than the polite ones we usually direct heavenward.
"Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
Jesus gets up. He rebukes the wind. He says to the waves, "Quiet! Be still." The wind drops. The water flattens. It's completely calm. And then He turns to the disciples and asks, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
They're left staring at each other, asking the only question that makes sense at that point. Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him.
The Bit We Get Wrong About Faith
There's an idea floating around — sometimes inside the church, sometimes outside — that faith in Jesus is supposed to work like an insurance policy. You sign up, pay your premiums, and in return your life gets smoothed out. No more storms. No more surprises. Priority boarding to heaven and a nice quiet ride till you get there.
It sounds appealing. It just isn't what Jesus offered.
The other version of this is the modern, slightly more polished one. Faith as a self-help system. If you read the right books, follow the right principles, manage your life carefully enough, you can plan your way out of trouble. As Will reminded us, even the famous modern philosopher Mike Tyson had thoughts on that one.
Everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the head.
Neither of those is the faith Jesus is training His disciples in. Notice what He doesn't do in Mark 4. He doesn't keep the storm away. He told them to get in the boat knowing full well what was coming. Following Jesus' instructions didn't keep them out of danger. It put them right in the middle of it.
That's not a bug. That's the whole point.
Three Things Will Pulled Out of the Story
Will boiled it down to three things, and they're worth sitting with.
1. Jesus is God
When Jesus tells the wind and waves to be quiet, He isn't praying. He isn't asking God on their behalf. He's commanding the weather, and the weather obeys.
That matters. In the Old Testament, the sea was a picture of chaos and death — it's why visions of heaven mention there being no more sea. Psalm 89 worships God as the one who rules the raging waters. Other people in the Bible pray to God about the weather and God responds. Jesus speaks directly, and creation listens.
The disciples were terrified after the storm calmed, and you can see why. Who is this? The answer is the one they were sitting next to all along.
2. Jesus cares
There are plenty of gods that humans have invented to handle the weather. Zeus. Thor. Indra. The pattern with most of them is the same — they need placating. You sacrifice, you serve, you flatter, and maybe they leave you alone or send a bit of rain.
That's not what we find here. No ritual. No offering. Just a panicked shout from frightened men, "Don't you care?" And Jesus does care. He just isn't panicking with them, because He knows something they don't. He knows His own authority. He knows they aren't actually going to drown. And He cares enough to use the moment to grow them, not just to fix them.
He is a solid rock in a storm. He's not flustered by what threatens to tear us apart, but He does care and He is able.
3. Jesus does not abandon us to our fears
Jesus isn't a fixer who shows up, sorts everything out, and disappears. He isn't an overprotective parent who keeps us wrapped in cotton wool, away from anything difficult. His care looks like something different. He walks with us through the fear, teaches us who we really are in the middle of it, and helps us think and act from there.
The storm came. Jesus knew it would. And He met them in it.
A Cycle Down Glencoe
Will told a story about a cycling holiday in the west coast of Scotland in his early twenties. He and a friend got off the overnight train at half six in the morning, no sleep, midges everywhere, low cloud, drizzle. The friend was beginning to seriously question this holiday idea.
Will had been to Glencoe as a kid. He remembered the view — massive mountains, a beautiful U-shaped glaciated valley dropping down to the sea. His friend had never been. And as they cycled, Will found himself praying, sort of imagining it — what it would be like if the clouds just lifted and the sun came through.
Ten minutes later, that exact thing happened. The clouds peeled back, shafts of sunlight came down, the mountains stood up around them, blue sky everywhere. Will shouted at his friend to stop, then told him what he'd just been praying a quarter of an hour earlier.
He freely admits the obvious objection. Surely God has got better things to do than rearrange the weather over Scotland. Maybe. But for Will, it was the first time he really understood God's love for him — not as a concept, but as something practical. They were the only ones in that valley to see it. And it stuck.
A Day of Prayer for Dunkirk
Will also took us to a much bigger storm. May 1940. Nazi Germany had pushed through the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Around 400,000 exhausted Allied troops were pinned down at Dunkirk on the Channel coast, waiting to be wiped out.
On the 26th of May, King George VI called for a national day of prayer. Tens of thousands of people poured into churches and synagogues. You can still find photos online of queues outside Westminster Abbey that day.
Over the following eight days, three things happened in the weather that turned disaster into rescue. Days of rain and low cloud limited what the German planes could do. Bomb smoke from attacks on the town drifted across the beaches, hiding the scale of the evacuation. And on the day the largest flotilla of small boats sailed across, the Channel — usually rough and dangerous — was described as a millpond.
They'd hoped to get 45,000 men home. Over 330,000 came back.
A coincidence? You can argue that if you want. Will's point is gentler. When people had run out of resources and ideas, they asked for help. And help came.
The Boat We're Actually In
So what about the storm you're in right now? The thing you've prayed about, the situation that doesn't seem to be moving, the place where God appears to be on the cushion in the back of the boat catching some sleep?
A few things to hold onto from this week's conversation.
Don't stop asking. Will's encouragement was simple — keep asking, and don't be afraid to ask Jesus for His perspective on it. There's no ritual you need to get right. No magic words. As Will put it, the help isn't conditional on us being favourable enough. We can just say help.
He isn't ashamed of us when we wobble. Jan made the point in Conversation Street that God doesn't humiliate us when we panic. He's not annoyed that we've forgotten again. He doesn't say, "Hurry up, how many times do I need to teach you this?" He affirms, He challenges, He keeps walking with us. There's no shame in it.
Knowing Him is the lifestyle, not just the rescue. Jan also reflected that we tend to treat moments of trust as one-offs we can pin to a date in the diary. Remember July 7th when I really had to lean in? But the invitation is to live this way more often — going to Him first, like a child going to a parent, instead of last.
Sometimes He works in ways we don't expect. Dan remembered a family trip back across Europe in the late '80s where their truck kept breaking down. They missed the ferry. It turned out to be the ferry that ran into the famous storm. Sometimes God doesn't stop the storm. He just keeps us out of the way of it.
Who Is This?
The disciples ended that night with the right question on their lips. Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him.
Will closed by suggesting that's actually a brilliant prayer. Not "make this storm stop right now" — though there's nothing wrong with that one either — but, Jesus, who are you? What is this? What are you doing? What do you want to do?
If you've been crying out for help and feel like nothing's happening, you're not on your own and you're not being ignored. Faith isn't insurance against the storm. It's the slowly growing realisation that the one in the boat with you happens to be God, He happens to care, and He won't leave you to drown in your fears.
He is a solid rock in a storm. And He is able.
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# Transcript (plain) — 2026-05-10 — Will Sopwith
Series: Jesus The Revolutionary
Hosts: Dan Orange, Jan Burch
Speaker: Will Sopwith
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Dan: Welcome to Crowd Church. It's great to be with you tonight, whether you're here tonight, 7 o'clock Sunday live, or you're listening to a pre-record. I'm joined today by the wonderful Jan.
Jan: Hi, hi, hi everyone. Nice to be here, whether you're here for the first time or If it's your 29th time, you're very welcome to be here.
Dan: So, yeah, well, we have tonight, we're continuing these, this new series, Jesus the Revolutionary, which is, yeah, it's been brilliant so far. And we've got the wonderful Will joining us today. Hi, Will.
Will: Hello, hello. Good evening. How are you both?
Dan: Good.
Jan: Yeah, well, thank you.
Dan: Yeah, are you all prepped and ready?
Will: All prepped and ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: So we we're doing this series, and if you've not been to Crowd or listened to Crowd before, Will's going to do the talk, and then we will have Conversation Street where we'll answer questions. So anything, just in the comments, just put questions, and we'd love to be able to try and answer those and discuss them afterwards. Just to let you know, we've got Will today. Next week I'm doing the talk.
Jan: Yeah.
Dan: About Mary and Martha, which is looking forward to doing.
Jan: That'd be really good.
Dan: And also every Tuesday we just started another Alpha. So last Tuesday another Alpha started. So if you're interested in Alpha course, just a great way to find out about Jesus, to informal, just ask questions, no wrong questions, no, it's just It's great, and we had about 14 people, last week. It was brilliant. Yeah, really good. But it's not too late if you want to join, onto that, onto that group, then you'd be more than welcome.
Will: So great.
Dan: I think Will would—
Will: Oh, I'm sorry, just catching up on my Facebook. No, that's fine. Hello, hello. So yeah, good evening. As Dan said, we've been looking in this series about Jesus the Revolutionary. And so far it's focused on His interactions with different people. Tonight we switch context a little, and since we're British, we talk about the weather. So we're looking into the well-known story of Jesus calming the storm, and you can find this, if you've got a Bible, in Mark 4, starting at verse 35. So I'm just going to read that scripture now. That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, 'Let us go over to the other side.' Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?' He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?' They were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.' That's Mark 4:35 to the end of the chapter. My earnest prayer life began at the age of 6, and we generally go camping by the sea for summer holidays as a family, and every night I would pray, "Thank you, God, for a lovely day. Please can we have another one tomorrow?" I do remember a very sunny holiday, and it's easy to dismiss the rather self-centred prayers of a child and perhaps their coincidence for sunny week in July in the UK. But I have continued periodically to pray for the weather over the years, and I remember more answers than not. My favourite story is a cycling holiday in the west coast of Scotland, with a very good friend of mine. And the plan was we get an overnight train from Liverpool. This was back when I was, I don't know, early 20s. Overnight train from Liverpool So, we got out into the Highlands about half past 6 in the morning and we cycled down Glencoe. Now, Glencoe, if you don't know it, is a very large glaciated valley, a beautiful kind of U-shaped valley, massive mountains either side down towards the sea. It's absolutely beautiful. Going down Glencoe is a better idea than going up it if you're on a bike. Anyway. We got off the train, no sleep, 6:30 in the morning. Also, if you know the Highlands of Scotland, the midges descended, absolutely eaten alive within about 30 seconds. And we started cycling. Now I'd been to Glencoe as a kid on a family holiday. And I remembered, I just had this memory of this incredible place. My friend that I was cycling with had never been there. So I was really looking forward to showing him. But 6:30 in the morning, midges and cloud, not quite in front of your face, but very, very low cloud, no views, very soggy, classic Scottish weather. And as we were cycling, my friend was beginning to question more and more the wisdom of this idea of this cycling holiday. And we started going down Glencoe, and to be honest, it was miserable. We were so tired, we were wet, eaten alive. But as I was cycling, I kind of had in my mind, and I did sort of start praying it, just what it would be like if the sun just started coming through the clouds and the clouds lifted and we start to see this magnificence. What a great way to begin our holiday. And 10 minutes later, that exact thing happened, exactly as I'd seen it in my mind, started to happen in front of me as I was cycling down this road. And it got to the point where the clouds just completely lifted, these shafts of sunlight coming through, the mountains were there, blue, blue sky. And I just shouted to my friend, said, "Stop, stop, stop, stop!" And I told him about basically what I prayed about a quarter of an hour before. We then had the most incredible week cycling all up to Skye in beautiful sunshine. But so what? Surely God has got better things to do and changed the weather. Something about that story was that it was probably the first time I really understood God's love for me. We'd both been serving on a summer camp with lots of young people, and it had been a really hard work month, but brilliant. And people had come to faith, and people had grown in their faith, and it was just— and in my sort of slightly naive young mind, I thought, oh, maybe this is God just like, you know, rewarding us by giving us this beautiful day cycling down Glencoe. And I thought, don't be stupid. But we were the only ones in that valley, and it just struck me that God would do that, just kind of shift the clouds and give us the most awesome view that I will never forget, just because he loved us. So there was that. But sometimes, of course, there is much more at stake than having a nice day out. Two quick further stories, one from the Bible and one from living memory. There'd been a drought in Israel and no rain for 3 years, and this account is in the book of 1 Kings chapter 18. And the prophet Elijah had a big standoff with the in vogue priests of the idol Baal. And he says to the king Ahab, "Get home, the rain is coming." Now there had been clear skies for 3 years and the sky was still cloudless. But God had said to Elijah he was bringing rain, and so Elijah was operating out of faith. He then goes up to a hilltop and starts to pray, earnestly pray. It describes him as having his face between his knees, a position of humility, but also sometimes likened to a position where you might give birth. Jan, as a midwife, can correct me on that one. 3 times, While he's praying, he sends his servant to scour the horizon for an answer. 3 times, 3 and a half years of blue sky. On the third time, the servant sees a cloud rising from the sea the size of a man's fist. Soon after, the sky was black and heavy rains came. The second story is to reclaim the spiritual heritage of the Battle of Dunkirk. This episode early in the Second World War when the majority of the British Army was about to be wiped out. And there was a great Christopher Nolan film made in the past few years— great, except it completely scrubbed one of the most essential elements. In May 1940, Nazi Germany had invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, and there were 400,000 exhausted Allied troops who'd been retreating and were driven back to the Channel coast. They were pinned down and surrounded finally at Dunkirk, which is a seaside town with a very long sandy beach. Instead of continuing in for the kill, the Nazi commanders preferred to bomb the clustered troops from the air at leisure and also decrease risk to their vehicles, their tanks, etc., and their troops. And on the 26th of May, King George VI in England called for a national day of prayer. And tens of thousands poured into churches and synagogues. You, you can see online, you can find old photos of queues to get into Westminster Abbey that day to pray. Now, at first it was only naval ships being used to transport troops back over the Channel to England, and their size meant that getting right up to the beach was difficult and evacuation was really slow. There was 700— 7,600 or so in the first day. These ships were also large and making, making them very vulnerable targets for the German aircraft to bomb. Many were lost in those first few days. Now the hope at that point amongst the Allies was that with luck on their side, they might rescue 45,000 before the Germans would block further evacuation and close in. So in desperation, small boats and their owners were enlisted all along the south coast to assist with the evacuation, but these were much more vulnerable to the rough sea conditions the Channel was prone to. Miracles were needed and miracles were prayed for. Over the following 8 days, 3 weather interventions turned disaster to salvation. First were days and days of rain and low cloud limiting the effectiveness of attacks from the air. Second was the blowing of bomb smoke from attacks on the town to cover the beaches and obscure the extent of the evacuations being achieved. And third was the sudden lull in wind and waves the day the largest flotilla of small boats sailed. The Channel that day was described as a millpond, very unusual, and these factors culminated in the largest evacuation day of over 68,000 troops on the 31st of May. In all, bearing in mind they'd expected 45,000 to be rescued, Over 330,000 were eventually saved and brought back to England. So why am I telling you stories of changes in weather in response to prayer? I want to make 3 brief points: Jesus is God, Jesus cares, and Jesus does not abandon us to our fears. In the Bible passage we just read, Jesus commands the weather and the weather obeys. And as I've outlined in those stories I've told, it's for God and God alone to transform the weather. Even with our sophistication and the control of our lives and cities with technology, weather is still mostly outside our remit. We are much better at predicting it than we ever have been, but we mostly cannot change it. But as well as the weather in this story, Jesus also commands the sea. And for the majority of Jewish people, the sea was associated with turmoil and death, which is why in visions of heaven there is apparently no more sea, which always disappointed me when I was younger. In Psalm 89, God is worshipped as ruling the raging sea and stilling the waves. So, by his command over the wind and the waves, Jesus was clearly aligning himself with the divine. Others have prayed to God in the Bible and were answered, as we've seen. Jesus directly commanded. It was his spoken word that cancelled the storm. It's no wonder that his followers were terrified in the sudden calm. Who Is this? But not only is Jesus God, Jesus cares. There are actually plenty of weather gods that many have worshipped over millennia. There's Zeus, Thor, Indra, Vajrapāṇi, just to say a few. Worship of these gods seeks to placate the gods' wilder tendencies with sacrifice and service. Those gods didn't really care. They needed to be buttered up, if you like. But we see no such ritual or offering here, just a desperate help from men well used to sailing and weather, but nevertheless fearing for their lives. Now, in the passage we've read, these men directly challenge Jesus, "Don't you care?" They're indignant Jesus can sleep in in apparent peace while they're struggling for their lives. But Jesus does not care less. He's not a God needing placating with sacrifice. Jesus is just completely at peace about the whole situation. He knows absolutely his identity as the Son of God. He knows absolutely the authority he has. As a bit of an aside, what's astonishing is that through his Spirit, and this is in Matthew 28:18, he bestows that same identity and authority on all who follow him and call him Lord. Jesus knows they are not on the verge of disaster in the boat, but he also wants these followers of his to recognise who he truly is. He also wants them to grow in faith. And this brings us to our third point: Jesus does not abandon us to our fears. I think in this account, Jesus is demonstrating that he's not just a fixer— "Don't trouble yourselves, I'll take care of it." He's also not an overprotective parent, keeping us well away from any challenge or upset. His care extends to walking with us through our fears, mastering them, knowing our true identity in the midst of them, and beginning to think and act accordingly. Now, there's a common misconception, it seems, that faith in God, and perhaps especially faith in Jesus, transports us somehow into a perfectly managed existence of peace and joy and wholeness. Nothing goes wrong, no accidents happen, no harm befalls us. Christians safely living in the in-crowd, guaranteed priority boarding to heaven, all the perks implied. This is faith billed as a protective magic charm. Faith as a ticket to the first-class lounge, if you like. But Jesus viewed it very differently and modelled it differently by his life. He said to his followers, 'In this world you will have trouble.' And certainly in his life he did. Or perhaps our modern rational selves would tend towards perfect control, managing for every eventuality through following the best teaching or process, making sure we have all bases covered just in case, playing it safe. And this is faith as a self-help guide, a cast-iron guarantee life hack. Faith is a premium insurance policy. But as the famous modern philosopher Mike Tyson once said, everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the head. Neither of these are the faith Jesus is training his disciples in, and by extension, us. The storm came. Jesus in the boat wasn't a magic charm protection. Jesus knew the storm would come and yet still allowed or even told his disciples to row across the lake. Following Jesus' instructions didn't keep them from danger. Yes, Jesus did rescue people where they were helpless to rescue themselves. And yes, he did teach and outline a way of life that would bring fullness and joy. Connection and eternity. And make no mistake, belief in Christ is a guarantee for eternity. But here, in this boat, in a terrifying swell and dark clouds, he wanted his followers to know, "I am with you. You are mine. You are safe. Do not fear." He met them in their place of terror. And he demonstrated he had authority to protect them in that place. So by Jesus' word, he demonstrates he is God, demonstrates he cares, and he will not abandon us in difficulty. I wonder what the proverbial storm you are needing reassurance in is. Have you given up crying out for help? Does God seem altogether too relaxed about the situation you find yourself in? I encourage you not to stop asking. I encourage you to ask Jesus his perspective on it. And I encourage you that, in my experience, you will not be abandoned. Jesus lived among us, but he was never wholly one of us. He is a solid rock in a storm. He's not flustered by what threatens to tear us apart, but he does care and he is able.
Dan: Thank you, Will. Yeah. He does care, doesn't he? He does. That was great. Thank you very much for that. Jan, yeah, where do we go? What, what came to— what was the thing that stood out to you?
Jan: Just, just so much thanks, Will, for that. That was really, really excellent. I just think that your voice as well throughout it all was it was calming, and I was just like really soothed by it. Most of us, I would say, have not been— we don't work, you know, in fishing or in the sea, on the sea. So most of us have normal type of jobs where we're on the land, on land, except if none of us work in the airport or anything. But I would say that, we can still come across these chaotic, frightening moments in our lives, whatever, you know, wherever we tend to be. So, I just wanted to kind of ask the question really to you, Dan, first. Is it, you know, what, what do you do when things feel out of control? Or can you think of an incident where that has happened, you felt like that?
Dan: I can't, I can't think of an incident off the top of my head, but, but one thing that really I, I wrote down that Will said jumped out was when he said, surely God has got better things to do.
Will: Yeah, he doesn't, does he?
Dan: And that's, that's what I love, that, I, I read something today and a lady had tweeted, I don't think God really— yes, he's all-powerful, but he's not— doesn't know everything. I thought, no, he does, because he does, because he, he wants to, wants to know our situation. He cares particularly about our situation. And yes, he has— he does want to do, you know, hasn't got other things to do. He wants to focus on you, he wants to focus on you, Jan, on me, on Will. And yeah, I love that. That— yeah, so going back to your question, when it is perhaps a bit chaotic or something, and, at work, my, my prayers are always, God, help me in this, because I know he— I know he does, always has done.
Jan: Yeah.
Dan: And always will continue to.
Will: Absolutely.
Dan: Yeah.
Jan: So if it bothers us, it bothers God.
Will: Yeah.
Jan: Isn't it? That's the truth. And I just think what really came out as well, for me was, that knowing him is the key, isn't it? So one-off situations that I've been through, you know, where I felt very overwhelmed or very anxious or even frightened, you know, certain times in my life. But God, you know, I've prayed and God has intervened and come, but I haven't continued to live in that peace. And I think, I think God's saying here, or the, the scripture is, is sort of saying that this is more of a lifestyle possibly.
Will: Yeah.
Jan: Than a you know, situations that we can write in our diary and say, "Gosh, do you remember that July 7th, you know, when that happened? I really trusted God because I had nowhere else to go." Unfortunately, if I'm really honest, is God always the first place I run to? Possibly not. He's in my thinking. But I, I think we need to— it's just like childlike faith, isn't it? It's like a little child will ask mum or dad to pick them up and, and they'll cry and show they're upset and they'll need comfort. Who better to go to than, than him, our Father? But we don't do it as quickly as possibly we should.
Will: I know that, that, that modelling of a, of a lifestyle, yeah, was something that really struck me in this passage, that Jesus knew the storm was coming. He told the disciples, like, oh, let's go to the other side, knowing full well, if we, you know, believe he's God and knows all things. But he really wanted to kind of meet them in that place of fear. And, and you can imagine them talking for years after, it's like, oh, do you remember the storm? Remember when he was asleep on that cushion?
Jan: Yeah.
Will: And what did he say to us? And he challenged us about our faith. And the You know, there'll be other storms that they would have come across where they'd remember this story and they'd talk about it and go, "Well, he did it then, so we can do it now." And you know, I've got so many of those stories, and as a family, we then talk about, "Well, God did it then, so why not now?" And I think, yeah, and that's what I was saying when it's like, Jesus doesn't wanna just fix everything and protect us from everything, a bit like a sort of cotton wool parent. He wants us to walk the hardship and grow and learn. For whatever reason. But yeah, that's certainly the way God works.
Dan: And some— sometimes he interacts in different, different ways. That we, as a family, we used to go away quite a lot, a lot of times, all over Europe. And we had a— we had a big, — well, we started off with a bright yellow ambulance and the trailer behind. We go to places like Portugal and Poland and all over, for most of the summer telling people about Jesus. And on the way home one time, we were in— it was a bigger truck then, massive trailer— and it kept breaking down on the way, on the way back. And it would just be— would just be going, and then it would just stop, and we'd have to get outside the road. Weather wasn't great. My job was to put out the triangle, you know, this has been like in France, and We'd— Dad would like bleed the engine, get, get all the air out and stuff, and then we start and we go again and go again and again again. It's happened so many times, and we missed our ferry.
Jan: Oh no.
Dan: But that ferry was— it was— this was in like the late '80s when the crazy storm happened and Kew Gardens and all this.
Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: So this was what, the opposite? The storm still happened, but God stopped us getting on the ferry and going across. So sometimes he works, he cares about us. He might not stop that storm, but he just might stop us getting in the way of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He surely does care. Yeah, he does. Yeah, yeah. I love that, also you put that Jesus knew his authority, didn't he? Yeah. And that he passed it on to us.
Will: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which, yeah, which is astonishing.
Dan: Isn't it amazing that, I mean, the universe gives us That's an authority. Yeah.
Will: And he wants us to learn it, because I mean, what's the point of having authority if you don't know you've got it? But yeah, it is an amazing thing. And again, I can imagine his followers, you know, after he died, rose again, they received the Holy Spirit, remembering these stories and going, oh yeah, Jesus had authority. I mean, he said he was going to give us, you know, all the more. So it's like, oh, maybe we— yeah, yeah, it would be part of their growth.
Jan: I think in the process of growing in our faith and, trusting God in these situations where we feel overwhelmed, where life is chaotic. The, the beautiful thing in— I've experienced is that God doesn't humiliate me. He doesn't, make me feel ashamed. Yeah, he's like, come on, catch up, you know. But there's no shame in it, and he's not angry with me. Yeah, I think, I don't know, I'm speaking for myself. I think I've often imagined him being annoyed and like, 'Hurry up, how many times do I need to teach you this?' Or, 'Why are you getting worried again?' You know, but he's not like that. He— there is no shame, there's just love and acceptance. And, he affirms us each time, doesn't he?
Dan: Yeah, yeah.
Will: And 'Cause he does challenge the disciples here in this passage. He says, "Have you still got no faith?" After all the things they saw. And we're talking about some of those in this series about the different people, the healings and different people.
Dan: He literally just fed 5,000 people.
Will: Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're kind of living a miracle every day. But no, you're right. He doesn't like, yeah, there's just a sense of like, "Oh, let's keep doing this." Yeah. Keep on this journey of learning.
Jan: Yeah.
Will: Yeah.
Jan: And I think it's certainly true that we don't— you know, God says that you will have troubles.
Will: Yeah.
Jan: I think we can all testify to that. But we're not on our own in them.
Will: Yeah.
Jan: Which is amazing, isn't it? It's just, yeah, just incredible. Yeah.
Dan: Alicia's got amazing testimony here. So she, she said, I like to remind myself that God is good both in small and large things. And, happy birthday was Alicia.
Jan: It was her birthday.
Dan: Last week. Yeah. And but bittersweet because it's her, first birthday since her, her mom's passed. And she said she had an, incredible encounter last year with him where I told Jesus, I told him how I longed for my mother's hugs and basically wished he could hug me. But I thought, well, that's not possible, is it? But the next morning I woke up feeling like I was enveloped in the most indescribable hug I've ever known. And it was an original song of praise on my lips that was not of my own making, isn't it? Just, yeah, surely he cares about us. Okay. Yeah, individually. Yeah, that's great. Thanks for, for sharing that, Alicia.
Jan: Thank you. Yeah, yeah.
Will: And then that was that, that story of that, that mad cycle in the Highlands. Just like, I mean, literally, you know, we hadn't seen a soul. We're the only people that were there to see that particular amazing weather miracle. And I think that was the first time I realised, yeah, God does care about the small things.
Jan: Yeah, yeah, I am— many years ago, and I just learned to drive, I was, a student nurse, and I was, out on a placement, in quite a rough area. And it was first thing in the morning, it was November, and so it was quite foggy. I'd borrowed my dad's car, he'd let me with, you know, fear and trepidation, rightly so. And, I broke down just on this, the road near where, where I was going. And it was literally, there was not a soul, it was about half six in the morning. And, it was, you know, I couldn't see a thing. I didn't know what to do. The engine just stopped. And I was a bit nervous to get out of the car because it was early. I didn't know what to do. Anyway, I just prayed and said, you know, God, help me. I really need to get to work, but I don't feel safe here. Anyway, the next thing, literally out of the blue, I heard a voice go, "You alright, love? Do you need a hand?" And I was like, oh, and it was a man came towards me. I couldn't tell you what he looked like. He was a, you know, like a father age, my dad's age. He told me to lift the, you know, open the bonnet, did all that. And he said, try the engine now. Did, and it turned, and that was it. And I, I was, you know, he put the bonnet down And I was like, 'Tha!' And there was no one there. He'd gone. I don't know whether he'd gone into the mist, but there was no footsteps. I couldn't see him. It could have been an angelic thing. It could have been God, you know, a God moment. But he, he does care. He really does. And, yeah, I've had many moments like that. You know, which is brilliant.
Will: Yeah, yeah, amazing.
Dan: And as well, Will, you said that he doesn't take us— doesn't take us out of that place, does he? He meets us in— yeah, in our place of terror. Yeah, because it said in, in this world there will be troubles.
Will: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't know, I don't know where this idea comes from that, you know, you— well, people talk about Christianity as a crutch, don't they? And like, oh yeah, the, the reason you've got faith is because somehow you're gonna your life's going to become perfect. Which, I mean, I suppose that makes sense. That's the offer, isn't it? It's like, yeah, you give your life to God, God makes your life perfect. That's the contract, that's the transaction. And if you've been— if you've listened to anything on Crowd for any amount of time, you recognise that that's really— that's really not the case. Yeah, but actually it's better. Yeah, even though, you know, it's— and people struggle with bad things happening, and of course we, we all do. But actually that sense of knowing, knowing God with us in it. And, and then, you know, another thing that you'll hear a lot in, in Crowd is that, that accessibility, that just that kind of cry for help, much like you in the car, you're just like, help! There's not a, there's not a ritual, there's not a whole kind of way we have to, I don't know, be, be favorable enough to God. We can just say help.
Dan: Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned again in, in your talk about sometimes we do think, is this a reward for when you're that kind of— it's a reward for this.
Jan: Yeah, yeah.
Dan: And he just loves to lavish, doesn't he? And he just loves to hear— and he loves to hear our voice. Yeah, I do believe that. He loves to hear our voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, wow.
Jan: What else can we— are there any more comments?
Dan: Yeah, yeah, she's just, yeah, really hot on emojis. Yeah, he, he loves to hear our voice.
Will: Yeah, he loves—
Dan: Prayer is a strange thing, isn't it? If we sort of— it's not really a bit of a tangent, but that, he's the God of the universe, he can do what he wants, he knows our thoughts, yet we need to pray.
Jan: Yes.
Dan: Yeah, we still need to ask him. And it's— so if you're in a relationship, you, you know, I know my— what, what my wife likes, I know what she does, I know what she does in the morning and, and through the day. But I still like to ask her about today. I still want to talk to her, have that conversation. And he's, he's still for us in that, still wants that, that relationship.
Will: Yeah.
Jan: What I, really liked as well was the— you told the story about how the king called for a day of prayer. Yeah, that just blew me away. Can you imagine that happening now? In this country, people are Really, I think, I think, I hope that people would, you know, take the challenge. Yeah, take the challenge. But then we'd get like, because we're so multicultural now, it wouldn't just be going to church.
Will: But, I just think that's, you know, but it's actually another really good example, isn't it, of being powerless? I mean, that was a proper time when like this was This was most of the kind of professional, if you like, army about to be wiped out. Before the war had really even started, this was like, and it's just a desperation of like that call to prayer. I mean, I believe it was done in faith. I think George VI was quite a godly man. But again, it was just that help. We are out of resources. We are out of ideas. I've grown up with a lot of very cynical people who will always, always ask, just a coincidence, and, and, you know, whatever answer to prayer you could say that of course there's an answer, and it's irrational. But, but part of the, part of the journey of like, yeah, but when we, when we did it and then it happened and it built a faith and, and it kind of, we got to know more of God, and, and that, that sort of journey of really risking that prayer. And I, you know, I really would encourage you to to risk saying those prayers and, and just, just turn off your little cynical voice for a moment and say, well, yeah, but what if God answers that? What if it is a really stupid thing? And what if it might have happened anyway? Just pray anyway. As you say, he loves to, loves to hear our voice. He wants, wants to be on that journey.
Dan: Yeah, he does. Yeah, absolutely.
Jan: I think I've met quite a few people, in the past who are so controlled in their life that they don't allow themselves to get into an awkward situation, or, you know, they think of every eventuality. If they're going on holiday, if they're going out for the day, they've got this and that and the other. And I, I kind of admire those people. I am not one of those people. But you know, there's some things that happen in life that no matter how prepared you are, you still haven't got the right stuff on you for that moment. And that, that would freak a lot of people out. But I just think it's, that's when trust comes, where you can almost let go of all that fear and that, oh, you know, that sort of tightness, you know, that anxiousness, because God's— God can handle it. I loved what you said at the end, he is able.
Dan: Yeah.
Jan: And that is so reassuring to know that he's with me and he can do it. It's like, okay, thanks.
Will: Yeah.
Dan: Yeah, you might have gathered that we, we as a crowd, like to put our trust in Jesus. Found that it, found that it works, found that it's the best way.
Jan: Absolutely.
Dan: And again, like we mentioned at the beginning, if you, if you do want to know more about, about Jesus, obviously there's loads of talks on Crowd Church, but there is an Alpha that's just started. So please, yeah, get in touch. And if you want to, just fill out the form on crowd.church, you find the form there. We're almost coming to an end, so when, when we finish this live stream, we will do a live lounge. Live lounge is the word. Yeah. So Zoe's going to put the—
Jan: Yeah, come meet us—
Dan: The address, or Matt will put the address in the— Matt's going to do that, put the address in the comments. So come and meet us. Yeah, and we're talking to you, and But before that, is there anything you'd just like, any parting words?
Will: Well, just that final verse in our reading, actually, when the disciples are just kind of dumbstruck at all that's just happened, and they just say, "Who is this? Who are you?" And you know, that's a great prayer.
Dan: Yeah, yeah.
Will: Just say, "Jesus, who are you? What is this? Who is this? What are you doing and what do you want to do?" start that journey, start those, those steps of the big and the little answers to prayer and, knowing that, yeah, he is God and he does care.
Dan: Yeah, absolutely.
Will: He's with you in your storm.
Jan: Yeah, amen. Yeah, thank you.
Dan: Anything else?
Jan: No, I think, I think we've said, you know, said what I wanted to say.
Dan: Well, thanks for joining us, and we will see you next week. And Like I said, come and— if you're, if you're watching this now, come and meet us on Google Meets.
Jan: Yeah, Live Lounge.
Dan: Yeah, see you next week.
Jan: See you there.
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