Faith in the Incredible
Genesis 24:52-26:16
Matthew 8:18-34
Psalm 10:1-15
Proverbs 3:7-8
Of all the things the uneducated, working class disciples of Jesus don't know how to do, there is one thing they know very well how to do. They know how to fish and they know how to sail.
I couldn't tell you what kind of boats the disciples used, but rest assured they knew how to operate their boat. They understood every part of the vehicle, they understood the water, they understood the wind, they understood everything from years and years of making their living out on the water. It was the trade their fathers taught them and it was the trade they were well-equipped to train their own sons in.
When the winds and waves started to howl, when the storm broke out on the open seas and the disciples and Jesus were being tossed to and fro...the upper class, previously tax collecting disciples looked to these men to know what to do. They were the captains of the ship, they were the ones with the experience. In all their years sailing they certainly had been in storms before. They were the ones who needed to remain calm, they were the ones who needed to think straight and come up with a solution.
But the wave were too high, they towered over and swept over the boat. The disciples who knew what to do suddenly realized they did not know what to do, in fact, they couldn't do anything at all. They needed Jesus.
Jesus...is...sleeping?
In my moment of crisis when I thought I had everything figured out and I see the world is falling apart around me and I am going to lose absolutely everything...it's far from a comfort to think of Jesus in that very moment sound asleep.
They turn to Jesus and wake him up. "Lord, save us!"
They have exhausted all of their boating knowledge, they see now they are subject to the sea, they have but one option, wake the Lord up, "we're going to drown!"
In my moment of crisis, as I picture Jesus sleeping, it's also not a comfort to think of Him waking up to say, "You of little faith."
In this situation, if I were the disciples and was feeling especially sassy...first of all I might think "I feel like I don't need faith! Faith in what?? In this situation...I'm supposed to know what I'm doing out here and I don't know anymore...it seems rather certain that we will drown. What is there to have faith in?"and second I would think, "I do have faith, why do You think I came to You at all? I know You are Lord!"
But He says "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"
"I'm afraid because I know how this ends Lord! I've been on this boat before and I know this won't work out! I need You, I need You, I have not a clue how You can help, but I need You"
As quickly as the men who "knew what they were doing" on the boat became the desperate men waking Jesus up, all the disciples learned just how faithless they really were when Jesus "got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm."
"I thought maybe You would figure out a way to sail better, I thought maybe You would help us and become part of the team steadying the boat... I thought...I thought... I never thought this. I never imagined this. You stopped the storm all together.."
They learned they were faithless because they didn't know to have faith in the impossible.
Jesus takes the very things we are familiar with, comfortable with...like the disciples and fishing...and He brings it to a level we couldn't imagine. He tells the disciples "You know that thing you are really good at, you're basically an expert in, fishing? Right. Well, I'm going to make you fishers of men."
He tells the disciples, "You know that thing you are really good at? The thing you've been doing all night long unsuccessfully this evening? Fishing with nets, right. Well, put your net on the other side and you'll see your nets overflow."
He tells the disciples, "You know that thing you are really good at? Well, you are going to get this point with it where you can't figure it out, you can't see the way out...you think there's nothing left. And I'm going to SAVE you in the most impossible way you could never think of."
There are times in life when the stress, the worries, the fears, the hurt, the exhaustion, the desires, the waiting, the insecurities feel like too much. They feel like winds and waves towering over us, sweeping over us. We feel like we are drowning. And while it is good, good, good to call out "Lord save us!" in those moments...it is in the moments still that we maybe are being faithless.
It's in those moments that we should turn to God and ask Him to help us not to fear but to have faith because He is in control in the most realistic, most phenomenal way, in the most impossible way we could never think of.
Instead of asking Him to "save us from whatever outcome we believe is certain...we should ask Him to help us have faith, because no matter what happens: He's doing something incredible.
Tomorrow:
Genesis 26:17-27:46
Matthew 9:1-17
Psalm 10:16-18
Proverbs 3:9-10