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.

Day 036: Preparation

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.  So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless."  Matthew 22:11-12

This parable has given me some trouble in the past because of how it seems to be on the surface.  My reaction is usually: if the king invited all these people and the guest actually arrived, why is he being punished?  Didn't he come from the street anyways?

But, I have been thinking that this parable might be a bit more about preparation.  Indeed, at the very end, Jesus says, "For many are called, but few are chosen."  One thing is that the guest may have been called from the street, but he might have had time to go home in between walking around and arriving at the feast.  He could have gotten dressed by then.  Another thing is that maybe the king was not talking explicitly about the outward appearance of the outfit, speaking more about how well dressed the man was relative to his social stature - as in, he didn't care to give the slightest thought to the grandeur of the feast.

Whatever the case was, though, it ended with the same issue: the king asks, "Why?" and the guest is speechless.  This reminds me of the many times my mom has asked me about why I didn't do what I was supposed to do.  Why didn't I do my homework?  Why didn't I do the dishes?  Why did I lie?

We have so much of an opportunity to live life the way we want to.  I mean, we truly have an entire lifetime to live it, but we will face ultimate judgment after death.  Of course, there are also times when we will have God coming to us asking "Why?".  We can't be speechless at these times.  We need to be prepared for these moments.

God has reached out to us so many times and in so many ways.  God still reaches out to us every day. Sometimes, we decide to accept what God has.  Other times, not so much.  God reaches out to us with peace, love, glory, and eternal life.  But, we look at it in a way that is filled with so much pride - I can do so much better.  Sure, maybe the curtains in the banquet hall aren't the color that you like, or maybe they're serving a food that doesn't have the exact taste you're looking for, but the opportunity is there.  We are given so much, but we like to pick apart what we don't like, removing the whole intention from the action.

I find that the guest in the parable thought that he could do so much better.  The man, who seemingly had no power, dared to curse the invitation by going to the wedding without his wedding garments.  But, we find that the king didn't flinch at this.  He resolved to punish the man.  I pray that we may never have to deal with the harsh punishments for our moments of pride, but we need to take the example.  We will find so many opportunities, but it will be our mindset that will determine what happens with each one.

Day 018: Fruits

"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.  Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things."  Matthew 12:33-35

Jesus calls us to do many things.  He calls us to go out and preach, bring more people to God, baptize the outsiders, donate, pray, fast, give alms, support the poor, and many other things.  I know that all of this sounds too overbearing.  But, at the same time, I find that Jesus gives us good advice, even if it sounds like an admonishment at first.

Imagine a machine designed to make automatic phone calls.  It can greet you and direct you to the services it needs to, but once you start asking for it to talk to you, it can only say, "I'm sorry, may you please repeat that," or, "I didn't understand. What would you like?"

Is that how we are going to be in the face of Jesus?  We need to be prepared.  Think about a fruit.  An apple comes from a tree.  How much larger is the tree than the apple?  The tree has to prepare so much just to bear one apple.  It has to form a trunk so it can protect itself, it needs to grow tall so it can get enough sunlight, it needs leaves to sustain it, and then it makes flowers so that they can attract pollinators to help the process of making an apple.  Couple that with the many years it takes for a tree to even consider bearing fruit and you have a lot of effort - a lot of preparation.

So, what are we to do?  Can we even bear fruit without preparation?  Most certainly not.  Can we prepare?  We most definitely can.  We have so many resources around us, and if you are reading this, you probably have access to the entire internet, which has even more resources than you could even imagine.  Take some time to prepare.  Prepare by reading the Bible.  Prepare by consulting spiritual leaders or friends.  Prepare by meditating and praying.  Prepare by practicing the fasts.  Prepare by trying to make new friends.  Prepare by learning about other people.  God will help us with our preparations, but we have to be willing to take on the challenge.