Look to the story of the 3 pots
At church on Sunday, John Tinlin preached on the account of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4.
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 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 the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:35–41, NIV)
He talked about the reactions of the disciples to the storm. Then he asked, “When the storm hits, what do you do?”
To help us consider our responses to the hardships in life, he shared a story of a young girl who complained to her father about her difficulties.
Instead of answering the girl’s complaints, the man went to the kitchen and set three pots of water to boil on the stove.
In the first pot, he cut up carrots. In the second pot, he added eggs. And in the last pot, he scooped in ground coffee beans.
After some time, he strained the carrots, peeled the eggs, and poured the coffee.
The carrots changed from hard to soft and weak. The eggs turned from fragile to hardened inside. And the coffee beans changed the water into something better.
The young girl asked her father what this meant. He explained that the boiling water represented the suffering we find ourselves in. The carrots, eggs, and coffee beans represented how we respond to the circumstances. We can either weaken like the carrots, harden like the eggs, or turn out better than before like the coffee beans.
We all face boiling water — misfortunes, difficulties, and troubles — in life. How we respond is our choice. We can go from crisis to crisis, or we can prepare for what we face next.
Preparation requires a daily walk with God. If you want an attitude to better handle adversity, spend time with Jesus.
When the storm hits, what do you do?