Day 099: Strengthening Faith

But as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master we are perishing!"  Luke 8:23-24

As I have been learning more about philosophy and taking more time to contemplate the wisdom literature of the bible, I have started to understand that wisdom involves a change of perspective.

This event shows a contrast between the wise person and the doubting one.  It seems that the end goal of wisdom is to find peace amidst all of the terrible things all around.  Jesus does this by falling asleep and remaining asleep during a storm.  Now, I don't know about you, but I know that I wouldn't be able to stay asleep (except for that one time while I slept through one of the worst hurricanes that swept through Houston).  I would probably be just like the disciples: scared, frightened.

But that's our problem with how we live our lives.  Despite the fact that we can describe ourselves as the good soil that accepts the seed from the sower and allow it to grow into something bearing the most beautiful of fruits, we might waver when we are faced with danger.  That's not what the Gospel calls us to do, though.  All throughout the Gospel, we find many words of encouragement.  Jesus has come to save us.  God will not test us beyond our means.  Go out into the world and preach the good news.  Behold!  The ill are healed and the poor are receiving the Gospel.  He is risen!

So why do we have trouble with accepting these words?  The issue is that we still deceive ourselves.  We like to say that just because we go to church we are faithful.  It's easy for anybody to walk into a church.  We say that just because we read a few words of the bible that we are faithful.  Just take a moment to scroll through Facebook to see how easy it is to read a word, even if one doesn't believe a single word.

"The wisdom of astute men will know their ways, but the folly of men without discernment is in their deceit." (Proverbs 14:8)  We can't live our lives deceiving ourselves about what faith we have.  We need to be diligent in our faith.  That involves knowing why we are faithful.  We need to take time every day to understand our faith.  We can only strengthen it through the practice of meditation through prayer, and through discernment while we read the bible.  We can only prepare ourselves for the storm when we actually prepare ourselves.  It's one thing to be in a house and say that you've watched all the safety videos for hurricane preparedness, but it's another to go to the store and buy a preparedness kit and know all of the ins and outs of the disaster.  We can tout our faith all we want, but God knows what's actually going on.

In order for us to make it through the storm, we have to reject all of the distractions from our faith.  We have to follow and stick with Jesus through all the times: the good and the bad.  When we do this, we will find that our faith is stronger than ever.  Jesus has called us to follow him; let us follow him.