Hello my friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome to day 18 of our Lent 2026 journey through the wilderness still held as we walk towards Easter through the Gospel of John.
As always,
I invite you to allow your body and mind to fully arrive in this moment.
If it's safe to,
Allow your eyes to close,
Notice the weight of your body,
Notice the contact between you and the chair or the floor or the ground beneath you and just allow yourself to be.
Today,
We begin in John chapter 6 and we begin in the dark.
John here from verse 16 tells us that it was evening,
The sea had become rough,
A strong wind was blowing and the disciples were several miles from the shore.
Now let's pause there for a moment.
Darkness,
Wind,
Rough water.
And remember,
These are fishermen,
They're not amateurs,
They're experienced seafarers.
They know this lake,
They've navigated storms before,
Yet for some reason even the experienced can sometimes be overwhelmed.
Now reflect on that just for a second.
If even the experienced can sometimes be overwhelmed,
We need to understand that fear should never be seen as a sign of failure,
But just simply a human response to instability.
And maybe right now in your life,
You're going through your own waters that are unsettled.
Maybe there's some unpredictable and difficult conversations that are happening.
Perhaps you're in the midst of circumstances where the outcomes are uncertain.
Maybe some of these things are even worse because no one else can see them,
They're all happening internally for you.
But just in this moment,
I invite you to name them quietly.
What waters feel rough for you right now?
Now in the midst of this instability,
Jesus does something completely unexpected.
And notice what he doesn't do first,
He doesn't calm the storm straight away.
Rather,
He comes towards them within it.
Notice that he approaches over the waves,
He draws near in the darkness,
He enters the space of their fear before he alters the condition around them.
Now this matters or should matter more than we can sometimes realize.
How often do we long for God to change our circumstances first,
Calm the wind,
Still the sea,
Fix the situation.
But in this story,
Presence comes before relief.
He says to them,
It is I,
Do not be afraid.
And in fact,
The words used in the original text for that it is I could even be translated as I am.
That phrase,
Simple and steady.
This is not Jesus standing on the shore yelling it out across the ocean,
It's spoken from within the storm.
I am,
Do not be afraid.
Let yourself imagine this,
The boat rocking,
Water slapping against the sides,
The strain in everyone's arms as they hold on and hold the sail or hold the rope or whatever it is that you do on a ship.
And then on the water,
Someone drawing near,
I am.
Do not be afraid.
And I invite you to let those words be spoken towards you now as presence in the midst of your storm.
I am,
Do not be afraid.
Notice that peace in this passage is relational before it's circumstantial.
The storm may still be active,
The wind may still be strong,
The rain may still be beating down,
But they're no longer alone.
The storm's still there,
But presence means that it's a different kind of calm.
It's not the absence of waves,
But it's the presence of Christ.
That's what makes it different.
And the wilderness teaches us something similar.
As we keep noting,
In the wilderness you're exposed,
There's no walls to shield you from heat or cold or uncertainty.
Yet over and over again in scripture,
It was in the wilderness where people encountered God.
Yesterday,
We learned that it was where Israel received their manna daily.
Remember the stories of the prophets who discovered the voice that was not in the earthquake or the fire,
But in the gentle whisper.
And it's where Jesus himself was led.
Not led to be abandoned though,
But led and accompanied.
This should remind us that exposure doesn't mean absence.
Instability doesn't mean that God has withdrawn from us.
Storms don't mean there's no one there with you.
Sometimes,
The formation that's happening in us is this.
Calm,
Even within the instability.
And we realize that we can be calm,
Not because the rest of the world has settled,
But because we're no longer trying to survive it alone.
Take another slow,
Deep breath.
And again,
And as you breathe in,
Imagine Christ drawing near across the waters of your life.
And as you breathe out,
Allow your shoulders to soften slightly.
What if the invitation today is not to be rescued from every wave?
What if the invitation though is to be met in them every time?
Notice carefully the difference here.
Rescue can sometimes keep us fragile.
It can keep us dependent on conditions being controlled before we can see that everything's going to be okay and we can move forward with some confidence.
But presence forms something steadier,
Teaching us that even when the wind is loud,
We're accompanied.
Even when the outcome might seem completely unclear,
We are still seen.
That even when fear rises,
We're not abandoned to it.
You may not yet see the shoreline.
You may not yet know how this will be resolved.
But my friend,
You can receive presence before the solution.
The question is just for this moment,
Can you allow yourself to be met?
It is I.
I am.
Do not be afraid.
Let the words settle deeper than your thoughts.
If there's a part of you that's still bracing,
That's okay.
Just simply notice it and gently ask,
Where might Christ already be approaching?
Not when conditions are perfect,
But right now.
As our time of prayer today comes to a close,
Imagine the boat steadying.
And it's not because the wind has completely disappeared,
But because you're no longer in the boat alone.
Feel the strength of that.
You're accompanied in your turbulent times.
You are met in your uncertainty.
You're not foolish for feeling afraid,
My friend.
But you're not alone within it either.
I invite you to take one final slow breath and let that breath anchor you.
And as you move back into your day,
Carry this steady truth with you.
That peace begins with presence.
And may grace,
That present peace and love always hold you steady,
Even in the midst of the most tumultuous times,
Today and every day.
Amen.
I am,
Says Jesus.
Do not be afraid.
And until tomorrow,
Bye for now.
