Not Fair ("Prayer" part 1)

I was just reading this morning about the disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee in the boat during the storm. This is the one in Mark where Jesus is actually in the boat sleeping. They wait and wait, not wanting to disturb him, presumably thinking they are experienced boatmen and can handle the situation. Finally realizing the seriousness and deadliness of their predicament, they wake him up. And what do they get in return? A scolding: "Why were you afraid? Do you STILL have no faith?"

Honestly... this seemed very unfair. I've read this more than a few times and I'm still caught off guard by it. What exactly did they do wrong? I had to go back and scan the 6 short verses to figure it out.

Should they not have tried to handle the situation? No. They were trained sailors; surely Jesus wasn't expecting them to ignore the training they had. In a way, wasn't that training provided by Him? Yes.

Should they not have woken Him? Maybe Jesus gets grumpy when he first wakes up. Ha! That's a funny thought--albeit completely irrational. No, they went to the right source, the One who could fix the problem.

I think the problem may have been in the way they came to Him... and that's a little hard for me to understand. They came scared. They woke him up as a last resort (even though I believe it was good for them to apply the boat training they have), and when they did they were afraid for their lives, wondering whether or not Jesus could take care of this.

So... I'm still a bit confused. It's a sin to be afraid? Maybe... I'm not sure. What if the fear is simply evidence of a lack of faith?

In Philippians 4 Paul says: "Rejoice in the Lord always! And again I say rejoice!" We don't usually rejoice when we're afraid for our lives... or when we're afraid about anything.

"Let your gentleness be evident to all, the Lord is near." What does this have to do with it? I'm not sure, I just didn't want to cut out the verse simply because it didn't fit. Maybe they weren't gentle when they woke Him up. :)


"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition--with thanksgiving--bring your requests to God." My guess is they didn't wake Him up with thanksgiving, but instead were extremely anxious. And that anxiousness probably came because they didn't really believe He could--or would--fix the situation. (We'll come back to the "would" later). Already at this point, only 4 chapters into the book of Mark, they had heard multiple demons testifying to the fact that He is "the Son of God." They had seen miracles and signs and wonders and anything else you can imagine. They had plenty of proof. Furthermore, Jesus had said "Let us go over to the other side." They knew that's what He wanted. Shouldn't the Son of God get what He wants? Much beyond that, shouldn't He be ABLE to get what He wants? Surely He has the power to do so.

"And the peace of God--which transcends all understanding!--will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus!" I think this is simply the evidence that happens after the obedience/faith. Just like Bonhoeffer says, "Only the believing obey, and only the obedient believe." Obedience and faith are really one in the same you can't have either without the other. The peace comes because we believe that God is going to take care of it. We aren't afraid because we know that He's still in charge. We have done what we are supposed to do: we have brought our request to Him. We've already sought His guidance and know that we're doing what He wants. So again... shouldn't the King of the Universe be able to get what He wants? Like Paul says in Romans:

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Could I substitute the word "will" for the word "love" in that last sentence without being a heretic? I think so. Just like nothing can separate us from God's Love... of course nothing can separate us from His will. The God of the universe gets what He wants.


So... now we come back to the question which was never stated but which is--if we are honest--the one way our situation usually differs dramatically from that of the disciples in the boat. It is the REAL problem even though we rarely think it is. This foundational question is,

"Do we really know the will of God for our life?"

Sadly, I think that in many ways we don't. We know the general principles laid out in scripture, but we have never spent the extravagant amount of time on Jesus to sit and hear from Him what He specifically wants from us. We talk about a personal relationship... but we often haven't truly made it personal. Can we claim that it's personal if we only ever apply scripture in the same way that it's applied to everyone else? If Jesus only ever talks to me in the same way that He talks to every other Christian at my church and if He only says the same things to me as to them... exactly what about that is personal? That sounds very much like a form letter to me. Where's the personal part???

I truly believe that God is willing, or much more rather eager to lavish that on us. But it's not something that happens quickly. It takes time. Intimacy isn't an in and out type of thing, quickly happening and then done, ready for the next part of life. In a truly deep relationship, intimacy IS the very relationship itself. The relationship is contained in the closeness, the whispered words, even the time spent even simply looking into each other. And that does not happen quickly. But WOW is it worth it! Every second spent on that closeness with Him will not be regretted.

~ to be continued ~