In the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 8), we read the story of Jesus and the disciples leaving Capernaum and crossing the Sea of Galilee; a storm comes up, terrifying the disciples, but Jesus calms the storm.
“Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Jesus asks.
When storms come into our lives—and they always do—the same question could well be asked of us.
The wind of the storms can and often do terrify us, but we must always keep in mind that the very same winds that seem too strong for us to endure are often the very winds that propel us forward.
Of course, another question of trust enters in when the winds propel us in a direction other than where we think we want to go. Are we willing to endure the winds only if they move us in the direction we want to go? Or do look forward in faith to arriving at the destination God has in store for us?
I don’t know about you, but for me, it is taking a great deal of effort to have this much faith. When my personal boat is taking on water, rolling and yawing and pitching, moving in some direction I can’t understand, I wonder whether my nerves are strong enough to handle it, and can’t help but wonder if maybe there isn’t some other way.
Well, then, what are the alternatives? Matthew doesn’t tell us what happened after Jesus calmed the storm, but I figure that the disciples were left to row across the sea. Now there’s a daunting task. If the uncertainty of waves and wind are daunting, the certainty of a very long and difficult task can be worse.
My parish pastor, Father Paul Kahan, SVD, ends each of his sermons with the words, "Church, remember: God cares deeply about you." Father Paul is a wonderful man, and I believe what he says...but I confess that sometimes I wish those storm winds would ease off just a little.
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