How often does fear instead of faith direct our response to things?
In today’s Gospel, the Lord and his apostles are out to sea when a storm blows up. Jesus is asleep while the disciples are terrified. It kinda reminds me of every time there is a severe weather alert here in North Texas. I’m lying awake checking my phone constantly terrified I won’t be prepared when it’s time to head into a safe location while my husband… is often sleeping quite soundly. It drives me nuts! (Happy Father’s Day, Joey)
I want to say: “Get up! Worry with me! Go over the plan one more time. Answer my hundred non-sensical questions even a meteorologist can’t answer! And if you could, stop the storms while you are at it.”
No, my fear and my response to it doesn’t often make sense but it’s like “If I’m not sleeping… you’re not sleeping either!”
In moments like those, I definitely let fear direct my response. I let it take over me completely until the threat is past. I think it’s because I don’t like the uncertainty that comes with weather. I don’t like the lack of control I have over what it does or when it decides to go rogue and cause damage.
I really feel the apostles in this Gospel story. I think I’d be right there along side of them asking: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Wake up already!
Of course when the apostles let fear overtake them, Jesus wakes up and takes care of things. After he wakes up, however, I think there are two important lessons for the apostles and for me in his words. After he quells the storm, he asks: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
I think the first lesson is that we have what we need to battle the storms that come up even unexpectedly in our lives. We’ve been given the grace and the tools to weather them.
We have to have a little more faith in ourselves.
The second lesson is that even if sometimes it feels like God is sleeping on the job, God isn’t. God’s grace never takes a nap.
We have to have a little faith in God too.
I need to practice this for sure – faith in myself and faith in God when things get a little wonky. My prayer for you and me this Sunday is that we can take a deep breath in the storms of life and say “We (God and I together) got this!”
