He Is In Our Boat!

Sister Lisa Harkness gave this powerful description of faith in the most recent general conference: “Even in turbulent times, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is gritty and resilient. It helps us sift through unimportant distractions. It encourages us to keep moving along the covenant path. Faith pushes through discouragement and allows us to face the future with resolve and squared shoulders. It prompts us to ask for rescue and relief as we pray to the Father in the name of His Son. And when prayerful pleas seem to go unanswered, our persistent faith in Jesus Christ produces patience, humility, and the ability to reverently utter the words ‘Thy will be done.’” She spoke of the well-known experience of the disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee as they cried out to the sleeping Savior when the storm raged, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38) He of course arose and calmed the sea and invited them to have more faith and not be so fearful, just as He invites us today to trust more fully in Him. Even when the symbolic storms threaten each of us, we must strive to have faith in the Savior that is “gritty and resilient” and which “allows us to face the future with resolve and squared shoulders.” She concluded her remarks with this witness: “We have every reason to rejoice, for our Lord and Savior is keenly aware of our troubles, cares, and sorrows. As Jesus was with His disciples of old, He is in our boat! I testify He has given His life so that you and I will not perish.”

                I love this idea that Jesus is “in our boat” with us. Like the experience of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, we too might feel that He is “in the hinder part of the ship, asleep” and not paying attention to our needs. But He has promised to be with us as we strive to be His disciples, testifying of this fact over and over in the Doctrine and Covenants. To the Prophet Joseph and a group of six elders He declared, “Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father” (29:5). At a conference of the church He give this assurance through the Prophet: “But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me” (38:7). He spoke these reassuring words to Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Leman Copley in 1831: “Behold, I will go before you and be your rearward; and I will be in your midst, and you shall not be confounded” (49:27). To the elders of the church the Savior witnessed again in another revelation: “Wherefore, I am in your midst, and I am the good shepherd, and the stone of Israel. He that buildeth upon this rock shall never fall” (50:44). And to all of us He declared, “And now, verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you” (61:36). These are all powerful reminders of the fact that He is in our metaphorical boats and knows exactly what is happening to us, even if we cannot see Him. I have to wonder if in the midst of their panic fighting the storm and trying to keep the boat afloat, those disciples of old did not forget for a time that Jesus was actually there with them. Perhaps they were so focused on the stress of the moment that they failed to reach out to the Savior sooner for His help because He was out of sight in the corner. Maybe there was a moment that one of them suddenly remembered, “Wait, the Master is with us! Why aren’t we seeking His help?” When they reached out to Him, then He immediately calmed the storm and their hearts. For each of us we must never forget that He is here with us, that He should be our first and last line of help, and most importantly that “He has given His life so that you and I will not perish.”