24.Jun.2009 Faith on the open water…

Luke 8: 22-25:

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. On the way across, Jesus lay down for a nap. And while he was sleeping the wind began to rise so that a fierce storm developed that threatened to swamp them. And they were in real danger. The disciples went and woke him, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” So Jesus rebuked the wind and the raging waves; and the storm subsided, and all was calm. And then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” They were filled with awe and amazement and they asked one another, “Who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey him?”

We’ve been talking in recent weeks about building your life. A large dimension of this process, perhaps even the largest, is building your faith. A life without faith is a life without direction, foundation, or purpose. Lucky for us, then, that God gives us a mustard seed’s worth; enough, essentially, to believe that Jesus is God, which in turn enables God to come and dwell within us. From there, from that seed, we must get involved in the process ourselves, for if our faith grows so our productivity grows, and when our productivity grows, so our fruitfulness grows, so our life grows.

We can look to Jesus’ life and ministry to see the manner in which he builds his people, beginning with their faith. His disciplines, for instance, lived and traveled with Christ for roughly three years of his ministry, and during this time Jesus was teaching them, mentoring them, and investing in them. Constantly. Every opportunity he had he used to teach, to drive the point home about faith, he would. And if you’ll recall, he remarked often when a person’s faith had served them: e.g. Matthew 9:29, Mark 5:38, Luke 7:50, Luke 8:48.

So here, in Luke 4, there is a lake. The lake is emblematic of one’s problem, if you will. Their shortcomings, their greatest temptations, their stumbling blocks, and their hang-ups. We all have our lakes. Picture it now.

So here you are on one bank seeking to cross the lake to the other side. Jesus, just as with his disciples, is willing to come alongside you, to cross your lake with you. This is a comforting thing, and so you board the boat with much excitement and anticipation. But once you get out there on the open water, with its depth and choppiness and unpredictability, you begin thinking differently than you had when standing back on the dock. You begin to forget who you are. To overlook your past victories and breakthroughs. To edit out the words of encouragement that have been spoken into your life. To discredit all the prophesying and answered prayers. And then, to make matters worse, in the midst of this panic you look down and find Jesus sleeping.

It is my conviction, church, that he does this on purpose. That he fires us up and sets us out on even our most ambitious endeavors and then leaves us to steer ourselves. He does this, of course, not out of trickery but of love. Out of a heart that wishes for us growth and breakthrough. And he’s always there. He’s never left. But he will, just as with his disciples, take this opportunity to build our faith. And when we need him most, when our fears crescendo past a point we can no longer bear, we’ll cry out and he’ll awake and calm those storms. He’ll speak to the wind and to the waves, to both the cause of our troubles and their manifestations, and we’ll complete our journey re-reminded of his protective and faithful spirit.