Is There a Right Two Percent?
Jesus is doing an incredible job evangelizing in Galilee. He has been focused on this area around the Sea of Galilee, spending time on the shoreline, telling parables to the crowds who followed him. Then, just when the disciples are beginning to think that they understand the pattern of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus tells them to get into the boat and cross lake. He is obviously exhausted, for he immediately falls asleep in stern. A storm comes up quickly, as they can on the Sea of Galilee, and the waves are so high that they threaten to swamp the boat. Jesus peacefully sleeps on… as if he has not a care in the world. The disciples, on the other hand, panic. They finally wake him with the question, “Don’t you care about us?” Jesus calms the storm and then asks, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” I have often wondered whether Jesus then went back to sleep or whether he stayed awake. And, if he stayed awake, what did he do as his disciples pondered who he was that he had the power to control the wind and the waves?
Stress management experts say that only two percent of our "worrying time" is spent on things that might actually be helped by worrying. Research shows that the other 98 percent of our worrying time is spent in this way:
40% on things that never happen
35% on things that can't be changed
15% on things that turn out better than expected
8% on useless, petty worries
These researchers go on to conclude that, if we would focus our worrying only on the two percent of things that might actually be helped by worrying, we could reduce the stress in our lives by 98 percent and live longer, happier lives. I’m sure that there are lots of clinical psychologists out there who would like to help us identify the right two percent… for a fee. My question is this: Is there a right two percent? Is anything in our lives helped by worrying? By planning ahead, yes. By putting our plans into action, yes. But, by worrying? I don’t think so. I don’t think there is a right two percent.
Now, the storm was a bad one. We know that because we know that at least four of the disciples who were on the boat were professional fishermen… and they were worried. We can pretty easily understand the fear of a tax collector or a shepherd… people who did not spend their lives on the water… but four professionals should have been able to handle whatever situation arose on the lake. Were they among those who woke Jesus up and demanded his assistance? Or were they too busy trying to keep the boat afloat in the storm to be concerned with those who were seasick… or panic-stricken? Or was the storm really so bad that even the professional fishermen felt they could not handle it? That certainly is possible. Anyone who has lived on the shores of the Great Lakes knows that violent storms are possible on those waters… storms that are bad enough to break apart huge freighters like the Edmund Fitzgerald and send it to the bottom of Lake Superior, taking all twenty-nine professionals down with it. In fact, more than six thousand lives have been lost in storms on the Great Lakes in the two hundred years that records have been kept. Whatever the answer about the severity of the storm and the disciples’ ability to handle it, Jesus took care of the situation, calmly telling the winds and the waves to “Be still.”
Ironically, the very thing that the disciples feared was the thing that they needed to get to the other side of the lake. Without any wind at all, the boat would sit in the middle of the lake, totally becalmed. It would take oars and manpower to get the boat moving without any wind. The disciples needed some wind to fill their sails… just not as much wind as the wind that whipped the water into towering waves that threatened to obliterate the boat and its occupants that day. How much wind did they need? Well, I would estimate about two percent… more than nothing, but far less than the gale-force winds that could destroy the boat. Is there a right two percent? Perhaps, there is.
In verses 40 and 41, Mark uses two different Greek words to talk about fear. The word that Jesus uses in his question is ‘deilos’ and the word that describes the disciples is ‘phobos.’ We all know the word ‘phobos’ for it forms the root of a word we use in the English language today… the word phobia. Phobias are things that we fear… with an abnormal, irrational fear. There is hydrophobia - the fear of water – and photophobia – the fear of light. Many people experience claustrophobia – the fear of being confined or the fear of small places – and acrophobia – the fear of heights. My son, Julian, has aerophobia or a fear of flying. Jesus’ disciples in the boat in a storm may have experienced anemophobia – fear of the wind – or astraphobia – fear of thunder and lightning. For the disciples, there was the conviction that whatever was causing their fear was something that was outside themselves… something they encountered that was not a part of their normal experience… something they interpreted as fearful… something they believed that they could not control. I myself suffer from arachnophobia – a totally irrational fear of spiders, considering that most of them are harmless. But knowing that there are only two kinds of spiders in North America that might harm me does not seem to put my fears to rest when I see anything with eight legs, regardless of size. The disciples were terrified… terrified of the storm and what it might do to them… so they woke Jesus.
Jesus, on the other hand, uses the word ‘deilos’ to speak of their fear. ‘Deilos’ is also fear, but it is a fear that comes from a person’s timidity… spinelessness… or cowardice. ‘Deilos’ deals with an internal defect of character, rather than the magnitude of an external event that threatens to overwhelm. Jesus implies that the disciples are afraid because they lack courage… or lack faith… rather than because the storm is so great that it is to be feared. And it is interesting that when he asks the question, he says, “Have you still no faith?” How long has he been with them? How many miracles has he performed? How many people has he healed in their presence? “Have you still no faith?” You can almost hear his next words… “What does it take to convince you?” “When will you believe?” In the Gospel of Mark, the disciples are never described as having faith… though it is often revealed that they lack it. It is a wonder that Jesus does not get totally frustrated with them… and with us. How much faith do they need? Two percent? How large is a mustard seed exactly?
Part of the disciples’ problem… and ours… is believing that God has us in the palm of his hand and that… despite all that may happen to us… God will never let us go. In fact, if we use this story as our example, God is actually in the boat with us and, whatever storms may arise on our journey through life, God is right there beside us. In this story, after the disciples woke Jesus, he told the wind and the waves to “Be still.” Will he always tell the wind and the waves in our lives to “Be still?” No. Not always. What he wants us to learn is how to trust him in all of the storms we encounter in life.
When I worked as a hospice chaplain in Austin, I was constantly amazed by the wide range of reactions of people to their terminal diagnosis. Some sank into a deep depression… a morass of morbid thinking about what the future might hold and what might happen to them in the days and weeks ahead. Many of these individuals did not want a chaplain to visit them, for they were convinced that God had abandoned them. They rarely requested my presence until they stood a mere breath or two away from death. Though I never visited them, I heard the stories of their final days from those who cared for them… stories of anger… frustration… and bitterness... mostly arising from their fear.
I contrast those stories with the stories of those who experienced the same pain… the same treatment… the same progression of the disease, but lived with a constant faith that God walked beside them on this road. These individuals radiated a calmness that the rest of us envied… a peace that we could not comprehend. They could speak of their terminal diagnosis… of their illness and the way it ravaged their bodies… without terror… or grief… or fear. There was almost a sense – as one nurse shared it with me – that the illness was happening to someone else. I have often commented that I believe I got more from visiting them than they received when I came to see them.
We often speak of the Kingdom of God in this world as an “already – not yet” presence. The Kingdom of God is here… and yet, it is not yet here in the sense that it will be when Christ returns. I wonder whether the faith of the disciples when they were with Jesus was an “already – not yet” faith. They did believe in Jesus as the Son of God, but they weren’t really sure what that meant. They did not have full knowledge… full understanding… of the power and presence of God with them… Immanuel. Perhaps, we, too, have an “already – not yet” faith… for our God is still too small… and we do not fully understand what God can do… and will do… for us… if we but had faith… faith the size of a mustard seed. Can we let go of the 98 percent and let God take care of that? Can we also release that last two percent… knowing that God will carry us through? Is there a right two percent? I believe that it is not the two percent that we are “justified” in worrying about… according to those who have done research on stress management. I believe the right two percent is the two percent of faith in our God that… if planted in our hearts and nurtured by God’s Word… will grow into a faith that will sustain us through all the storms of life. That’s the two percent I want. I’ll let those researchers worry about the other two percent. Amen.
Mark 4:35-41