Wreckless

A scene from Chuck Palahniuk's book, Fight Club, depicts a mechanic and several members of the club careening down a highway into oncoming traffic. The mechanic gradually lets go of any and all rules of safety, speeding up, looking away from the road, and finally, letting go of the wheel. Each moment is a brush with death, and an opportunity to strip away the superficial worries of life; your schedules, your looks, your causes...all that's left is to question what you're leaving behind...what you could have done with your life.

When interpreting the story of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4, most seem to depict a stoic Jesus, calm in the face of danger and assured of the sovereign plan. However, I believe that this interpretation relieves the story of the risk of following Jesus. This story gives us a taste of the adventure in store for the disciples, and how their following Jesus will cost them their security. What if Jesus sleeps in the deck of the ship to anger the disciples? Like Palahniuk's mechanic, I see Jesus throwing caution to the wind, allowing the disciples a valuable opportunity to contemplate the value of life in the yawning abyss of death.

Furthermore, the disciples need to need. Or rather, they need to know they need. We rarely appreciate sustenance more so than after a battle with true hunger. David Crowder puts it this way on his new album: "When we've given up, let Your healing come. When there's nothing left, let Your healing come." Only then, Lord. Only when we can appreciate it...only when we can learn and grow from it. Lent allows us such an opportunity to reach our extremities in order to come close to the Other. We throw ourselves into the face of the storm, knowing that our God is near. And if we turn in fear...if we cannot bear the storm, He stirs, and arrives to settle the chaos. But we must see that it is a gift primarily to enter the storm, for such is the cost of following the Messiah. To learn to love recklessly, we must first abandon all. To learn how to give, we must give everything. To hear the siren song of the Savior, you must tie yourself to the mast and endure the storm. We must consider the gift of the storm, for it is in the storm that we come nearer to our God.