Lord of the Wind

Matthew 8:23-27

The wind and the waves are prominent figures in this account. Also, the word faith is pretty key, in particular the phrase, "you of little faith." Matthew includes this account in order to show his readers that Jesus is not just Lord over illness and the spiritual world but that his authourity extends to the physical world. He can command creation. He is Lord of the wind and the waves. This, for Matthew and his Jewish audience, would have been further proof that Jesus was the Messiah, that he was the rightful King of Israel and the rightful Lord of all Creation.
I've always wondered how Jesus wanted his disciples to respond in this situation. They feel in mortal danger and they wake up Jesus to save them. To me, that demonstrates pretty significant faith: they realize that they are in trouble and that they can do nothing to get themselves out of the situation so they turn to their leader, someone, judging from their words, that they trust to save them. Were they supposed to trust that Jesus was in control even though he was asleep? Were they supposed to have a fatalist attitude that said, "well we can't do anything about this and since God is in control we'll just sit passively in this boat and let him do whatever he wants to do"? Maybe their lack of faith was in that they didn't really believe Jesus could do anything to save them but they wanted him to wake up so he could share in their fear and panic.
I just know that if I face a situation that is beyond my control I hope that I have at least as much faith as the disciples - enough faith to at least go to Jesus, whom I know to be in control and to be King over all, and ask him to save me.