Thoughts

First of all I would like to apologize for not posting at all for a long while.  I kept meaning to but never got to it.

Second I would like to reflect on PCTC a little.  For those of you who don't know CCV's student ministries recently attended the Pennsylvania Christian Teen Conference held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  It was a great trip, with truly inspirational speakers.  The theme for the weekend was John 6.66 Don't Leave and it was focused on many things in Christianity.  Another awesome fact was that we got to see Matt Silver, who was our youth pastor for a long time.  It was great getting to see him and getting caught up.

Finally on to the true topic of this post.  

Remember the story when Jesus calmed the seas?  If you don't you can go look it up, its found in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41.  Pretty much the disciples and Jesus were in a boat when a massive storm hit.  Jesus was asleep and the disciples got really afraid.  They new that at any second the storm could capsize the boat leaving them all dead.  So they all ran to Jesus and shouted "Teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown?"  I can imagine the fear on their faces as the waves washed over the boat.  Jesus was their only chance.  And he delivered.  Yes, Jesus quieted the waves and the wind.  However two things can be taken out of this.  

In the final verse it is stated that "The disciples were absolutely terrified.  'Who is this man?' They asked each other.  'Even the wind and waves obey him!'" Were not the disciples the ones who awakened Jesus hoping he could save them?  I mean, why were they so scared, they asked him to save them so they must have expected something would've happened.  Then again, maybe they didn't.  Maybe like most people they didn't really trust Jesus.  Maybe when they took their problem to God they didn't actually expect something to happen (just a note: I don't think that they had realized that Jesus was the Son of God yet so technically they might not have known that they were taking their problem to God yet).  Thats actually not too hard to believe.  Most people these days don't expect God to respond to their problems, but every time they bring it to Him, He does.  Even if we don't realize it, or don't expect it God always responds to our problems in some way.  That is the first thing we can take out of this story.

The second thing that we can get from this comes not from the disciple's fear, but from Jesus' anger.  When awakened Jesus was a little grumpy (and i would be to).  He got up and calmed the storm with vicious commands.  "Silence! Be Still!" He told it.  Then Jesus turned to the disciples.  "Why were you afraid?  Do you still ahve no faith?" He asked them.  That was pretty much Jesus saying, "You woke me up for this???"  Did the disciples really expect God to just let Jesus be killed by the storm?  I mean come on, even if they didn't know He was the Son of God they stil must have realized He was special.  He made a living performing miracles.  If I was Jesus I would've been like, "Come on people, do you have gray matter between your ears?!"  Honestly though, if I was in the same spot as the disciples I would have done the same thing.  See the disciples were human, just like us, and just like us, they can't comprehend that God has a plan for us, and even though the present may seem horrible, dark or scary, the result is a triumph.  We really don't have a complete trust in God.  Its almost impossible, but we should still try.

So I guess the overall topic of this post is that as humans, our trust for God is not nearly where it should be.  I think that we should make it our foremost goal to increase our trust in God to the point we truly believe that He has a plan for us.  

Until Next time,

Godspeed