The best sermon I never heard...

Perhaps one of the most memorable sermons in my life is a sermon that I never heard first-hand. Yet, it's had an incredible impact on my life.

In college, my roommate at the time visited a church (that is now a part of our current network of churches, cool huh?). Let me just say that Sara, my roommate, has an uncanny ability to remember things...and an amazing ability to relate details. So, she came home from this particular church one Sunday (I had gone to a different church at the time) and mentioned how much she really enjoyed the sermon.

Me, being not so great with details, am trying to recall exactly how it went down as she retold the sermon to us...

The gist of the story was based on a passage in Luke about Jesus calming the storm. When read, the easiest conclusion to come to is, "That's amazing! Jesus calmed the storm!". However, the part that Jeff Miller, the pastor, picked out was that the disciples were in the boat with Jesus. They had seen the miraculous things Jesus had been doing over the last few months. They had seen him perform miracles, heal the sick, raise the dead. Jesus was in the boat! Yet, they still panicked, they still didn't believe, they still tried doing everything in vain to stop the boat from sinking. The point he was trying to make was "Jesus was in the boat." Why do we worry, when Jesus is with us?

Anyway, for some reason, this became really popular when it got retold multiple times to girls on our floor. One of our friends even drew us a picture of a boat that proclaimed, "Jesus is in the boat" that we hung on the back of our door at 711 Hamilton (woot! woot!). It became a helpful reminder when we got bogged down and discouraged, "Jesus is in the boat."

Every time I read that passage of scripture, I am reminded that Jesus is in the boat, and I don't need to worry or fear, for He is with me.