"Of course you will be safe! Jesus is in the boat with you! What can possibly happen?"
Those may be our thoughts and responses when we have Jesus with us. In our western culture in the Church we have this mindset that with Jesus present, life will be safe and secure and we will have an abundance of everything we need (translated: want). But is that really how it is - or should be?
In Luke 8:22 we find Jesus invited his disciples to get in a boat and they were going to go for a boat ride. No worries, with Jesus in the boat it would be smooth sailing. But what happened? Part way across the lake a storm came up. It was so frightening that the disciples were afraid they would die! Really? Jesus was there! At least they had the faith to wake Jesus to see if he would rescue them.
Sure sounds familiar. We begin a journey where Jesus has has invited us to join him. We assume that will be the safest place to be. Then we hit nasty stuff. "Hey wait! I thought Jesus led us here! How can this be happening if Jesus led us here?" We are tempted to blame Jesus. "Don't you care? How could you let this happen?"
Jesus is far more concerned about us journeying through the storm with him than having us avoid the storm entirely. It is in those storms that we see the amazing power of God at work. It is in those storms that we learn to actually trust God.
So how about it? Shall we get in the boat?
Those may be our thoughts and responses when we have Jesus with us. In our western culture in the Church we have this mindset that with Jesus present, life will be safe and secure and we will have an abundance of everything we need (translated: want). But is that really how it is - or should be?
In Luke 8:22 we find Jesus invited his disciples to get in a boat and they were going to go for a boat ride. No worries, with Jesus in the boat it would be smooth sailing. But what happened? Part way across the lake a storm came up. It was so frightening that the disciples were afraid they would die! Really? Jesus was there! At least they had the faith to wake Jesus to see if he would rescue them.
Sure sounds familiar. We begin a journey where Jesus has has invited us to join him. We assume that will be the safest place to be. Then we hit nasty stuff. "Hey wait! I thought Jesus led us here! How can this be happening if Jesus led us here?" We are tempted to blame Jesus. "Don't you care? How could you let this happen?"
Jesus is far more concerned about us journeying through the storm with him than having us avoid the storm entirely. It is in those storms that we see the amazing power of God at work. It is in those storms that we learn to actually trust God.
So how about it? Shall we get in the boat?
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