Introduction
"I'm in charge of worry. The one in charge of peace is him." At the prayer meeting on September 16, 2026 at Yonezawa Kōjō Church in Japan, Kōichi Kintō reflects on Mark 4:35-41, the calming of the storm.
The preacher is not speaking from a distance. He describes himself as a great worrier and shares that he lives with severe depression, still treated at the hospital. This passage weighed him down for a long time. It has become a source of relief for him.
His message comes down to one discovery: the boat tossed by the storm is you. And in that boat sleeps Jesus, the one who has conquered death. You don't have to manufacture your peace: it has a name.
Message Outline
1. Catch Your Breath First, Solve It Later
- Kōichi Kintō has noticed something in common among those who carry "homework" in their hearts, himself included: somewhere, their hearts are tense.
- He suggests setting the problem aside for a while and looking for a small moment of relief: listening a little longer to music you love, taking a longer bath, thinking about nothing.
- We often think: "If the problem were solved, I could breathe." He believes it works the other way around: when you breathe a little, tension drops, your vision widens, and a path to a solution appears.
- He tells of a documentary about a man who helps the homeless. With a small grant, the first thing he buys is thermos flasks. Where the homeless live, there is no electricity. He fills the thermoses with hot tea and serves it in paper cups.
- Around that cup of tea, men who had stayed silent begin to tell their stories. "There's no telling how many lives have been rebuilt thanks to these thermoses," this man says. We should never despise what brings relief: healing and recovery are born from it.
2. The Master Sleeps in the Storm
- Many of the disciples are fishermen, experts on the Sea of Galilee. If they panic, it is because the storm is out of control and the boat is about to sink.
- Meanwhile, Jesus was "in the stern, asleep on the cushion" (Mark 4:38). The preacher smiles: you feel like saying the Master has no idea what is going on. The disciples finally burst out: "Teacher, don't you care that we are dying?"
- Why could Jesus sleep? "Because he was tired," his wife answered right away. He shot back that the tired one was more likely her.
- The real answer lies elsewhere: Jesus slept because he was at peace.
3. The Boat Is You
- For a long time, Kōichi Kintō wondered how to have a peace big enough to sleep like Jesus in the middle of the storm. One day, his gaze shifted to the boat: "That boat tossed by the storm is me."
- In every storm, his heart panics like the disciples'. Worse, he anticipates worry before the storm even arrives.
- Yet into this boat full of holes, which he laughingly calls the "Kin-chan Maru," the Savior has climbed. He sleeps soundly, completely trusting, however afraid his passenger may be.
- Hence this realization: in a heart full of worry there is a peace it did not produce. "This peace is not mine. This peace is the Lord himself."
- Philippians 4:7 says it: the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. What guards your heart is not you, it is Jesus Christ, crucified, risen on the third day, conqueror of sin, death and Satan.
4. Worried and Perfectly Safe
- "A depressed person who is always overflowing with peace would be strange, wouldn't it?" The preacher senses worry building up inside him. And yet a great, warm peace is also there.
- So he stopped forcing himself to be at peace. Pretending to be fine when you are worried just adds one stress to another, under the pressure of the idea that a Christian must always overflow with joy. And sooner or later, it shows.
- By giving up this futile effort, he learned to be "worried and perfectly safe." Since he no longer condemns himself for being worried, something peaceful has begun to flow more deeply in his heart.
- A peace manufactured by force is a facade. Jesus' peace is genuine, and it is already here.
- He tells of a flight on a small propeller plane between Okayama and Kagoshima, in the middle of a storm, with about forty passengers gripping their seats. No one panicked, thanks to the one flight attendant, seated at the front, who smiled at every jolt. Everyone looked at her face and thought: "We're not going to fall." "That smile in the storm saved us."
- The storms of life do not always calm down quickly. But you are not alone: the one in charge of your peace is in your boat.
5. "How Is It That You Have No Faith?" Hides Good News
- Verse 40 weighed him down for a long time: "Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?" Read at face value, it seemed to say: if you are afraid, you have no faith.
- One preacher said that the right response for the disciples would have been to sleep alongside Jesus. Kōichi Kintō admits with a laugh that he does not have that faith: he would rather have woken up Peter, Andrew and John by shouting.
- But he noticed something: did these disciples, whom Jesus rebukes for their lack of faith, drown? Not one. Jesus calmed the storm and saved them all, without exception.
- Jesus does not save only the disciples who have faith. "It is not the strength of your faith, but the certainty of the blood of my cross" that saves you. Behind these words of Christ shines the Gospel.
- When he was in his twenties, a woman from the church asked him to visit her son, who lived shut away at home. She explained why she had chosen him: "I hardly sense any faith in you." She always saw him hesitant, torn, downcast. Her son, also anxious, would dare to talk to someone like him, not to someone very solid.
- He was glad: it was precisely his weakness that made her choose him. Through this mother, he heard the heart of God: "You can stay weak in faith, you can stay worried. That is exactly why I saved you."
6. At the Bottom of the Abyss, He Is There
- Someone from Hiroshima asked him what the residents did three days after the atomic bomb. The answer: they got the streetcar running again, with the few cars left standing, in the middle of the ruins. It was a cry: "Hiroshima is not dead, Hiroshima is alive."
- In Nagasaki, the Christian doctor Takashi Nagai, himself irradiated, cared for the wounded and raised his two children in a small hut.
- According to a priest's account, someone asked him: "If God exists, why does something like this happen?" Takashi Nagai answered: "Fall all the way to the bottom."
- The preacher understands this answer as follows: as long as we ask that question, there is still a little room left. In true despair, that room disappears. And that is where, at the bottom, God is found.
- It is in the heart of the storm that we meet Jesus, who sleeps in peace. Christ, crucified and risen, has conquered death, the source of all our fears. He climbed into your boat with a peace that overcomes everything.
Key Takeaways
- The boat tossed by the storm is your life. Jesus has climbed in and sleeps there in peace.
- Your peace does not depend on you: the peace of God that guards your heart is Jesus Christ himself.
- You can stop pretending to be fine. You can be worried and perfectly safe, without condemning yourself.
- Jesus saved all the disciples, even those he rebuked for their lack of faith. He saves the weak too.
- At the bottom of the abyss, God is present. Christ has conquered death, the source of all our fears.
Personal Application
- What "homework" is weighing on your heart right now, and what small moment of relief could you give yourself before trying to solve it?
- Do you pretend to be at peace in front of others? What would change if you accepted your worry before God?
- What storm are you going through, and what does it mean to you that Jesus is in your boat?
- Do you condemn yourself because of the weakness of your faith? How does the fact that Jesus saved all the disciples change the way you see yourself?
- Who around you needs a "cup of hot tea": a simple gesture that helps them catch their breath?
Verses Cited
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was Jesus asleep during the storm in Mark 4?
For Kōichi Kintō, it was not because he was tired: it was because he was at peace. In the middle of a storm that frightened even experienced fishermen, Jesus was asleep in the stern on the cushion, and this is the peace he brings into the boat of your life.
What does "peace is Jesus' business" mean?
The preacher, who lives with severe depression, stopped forcing himself to appear at peace. He sums it up: "I'm in charge of worry; the one in charge of peace is him." The peace of God that surpasses all understanding does not come from you: it is Jesus himself, present in you (Philippians 4:7).
Is "How is it that you have no faith?" a rebuke that condemns?
No. Kōichi Kintō points out that the disciples to whom Jesus says this did not perish: he saved every one of them, without exception. Behind these words shines good news: Christ saves even those whose faith is weak, by the certainty of his blood shed on the cross and not by the strength of their faith.
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