Knowing How It Works

I recently read an article about Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, the company that makes the computer chips for AI, artificial intelligence.  Huang and a reporter were in a room filled with balls of various sizes and colors.  A robot, functioning with artificial intelligence, was moving through the room, selecting only the balls that were colored red and putting them into a basket. The reporter watched this awhile and then turned to Huang and said, "This makes me nervous! Doesn't this make you nervous!"  Huang laughed and said, "No! It doesn't make me nervous at all! I know how it works!"

Mark, in his gospel, recounts the story of Jesus calming the storm on the sea of Galilee. (Mark 4: 35-41).  The disciples put out in a boat on the Galilee water.  Jesus goes to sleep in the stern of the boat.  Mark states, "There were also other boats with him." (v.37).  The only reason that Mark can have for making this statement is that he was in one of the other boats.  This is an eye- witness account.  "A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion.  The disciples woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown!"  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!"  Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?"

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this?  Even the wind and waves obey him!"

In this scene, we see the disciples terrified, scared out of their wits.  By contrast, Jesus is completely calm, even annoyed a bit at having been awakened.  They are beside themselves with terror; he is completely calm.  The fierce and sudden storm doesn't bother him at all.  Why?

Because he knows how it works.  "Be still," he says.  And it's still.  He knows how it works.

Dallas Willard, a former philosophy professor at the USC Dept. of Philosophy, calls Jesus, "the smartest man who ever lived!" (The Divine Conspiracy).  He attributes Christ's miraculous works

to not so much "hocus-pocus" as to the fact that he, Jesus, understands how nature works in ways that we have yet to discover.  It is a radical idea but as you read his book, you get the distinct impression that he is on to something, something that maybe most of us have missed.

The Creator of Nature, knows Nature and knows how it works.  That makes sense.

It might be worthwhile to remember that when life terrifies us, to call on Him to help us.  After all,  He knows how it works.