Jesus, be with me in the Boat!

Advent devotional on Peace - for First Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, 2025 

Peace is not just the absence of conflict or war. It’s a positive thing in and of itself, just as rest is more than the absence of work.  Real peace is a state of heart that is positive, a fullness sometimes described as shalom or flourishing. 

As many of you know, I survived an “active shooter” terrorist attack in March of 2016 in the Ivory Coast. The Sunday before that happened, the sermon was on Jesus calming the storm (Luke 8, Mark 4, Matthew 8). Jesus was asleep in the boat, totally at peace, while the storm was raging. The disciples, on the other hand, thought they were going to drown and woke Jesus up. The takeaway from that sermon was that when we face troubles, we are to pray “Jesus, be with me in the boat!” 

One week after that sermon, I found myself up on top of a wall in a dark room with the sound of crashing ocean waves not 50 yards away and the sound of continual gunfire much closer for 90 minutes. I wish I could say that I was tranquilly sleeping as Jesus did - calm and at peace. But I was not. I remembered that sermon and prayed “Jesus, be with me in the boat”. Sometimes all that you have available in crisis are simple prayers. 

Peace did not come to my heart while I was in that room. For the disciples, peace did not come until AFTER Jesus calmed the waves. In my case, we were rescued by some special forces and eventually found our way back home. The immediate danger was gone but peace did not really return to my heart. I left Ivory Coast a few weeks later and returned to Cameroon. There was an absence of trauma, but I wasn’t really at peace - still on edge for the next month or two. 

If you have never lived in an African city, I don’t think you can know the sense of constant noise that one experiences at all times. Your windows are always open. Trucks and motorcycles going by with horns blaring.  There are animals of all sorts - goats, sheep, dogs, cows, birds. There is always someone off in the distance talking loudly. At night, there is music blaring from night clubs. And then at 4:30 a.m. the mosque across the street gives the call to prayer. 

In June 2016, three months or so after the attack, I moved from Cameroon to a small town in Germany to start my next assignment. I had an overnight flight and arrived mid-morning. I was picked up and driven to a guesthouse and had lunch. Then I lay down for a nap. An hour or so later I woke up suddenly - almost startled by the silence.  “What’s that sound? . . . Absolutely nothing!” 

God used that time in Germany for a fresh start and a time to build peace and refreshment into my heart! I spent a lot of time exploring the beautiful paths and bike trails through forests and green meadows. One evening, I crested the hill on a bike ride at sunset and caught this view. It lines up with this verse that I had discovered.  

In advent, we look forward to the coming of Jesus and the Peace that he brings to our lives and to the world. If you are experiencing a storm, ask Jesus to be with you in the boat and trust him to bring calm to the situation and to your heart in his time, because he delights in you!