Go On and Scream it from the Mountains

Sometimes, I have no idea what I want to write about.   This is one of those days.  I cannot tell you guys what I want to write about, but I really feel like expressing myself...so...here we go:

Things have been tough lately.  I've been challenged to trust God.  It amazes me how many times we say, "Just trust God, and everything will be ok."  That is TOUGH.  That means letting go of everything, absolutely EVERYTHING, and trusting it will be ok.  That can mean leaving a lot behind.  It could mean leaving behind very secure situations, great place, and even people you love.

However, there is something that I've really seen and learned in all of this.  God does want the best for us.  God is a just God.  But he is a loving God.  He knows what we need.

But, how would God know what we need?  How come we don't know what we need and just go after that?  Cause, quite frankly, we don't know.  How are we to know?  There is so many things that I don't know.  There are more things that I don't know than there are grains of sand in the ocean.  However, it has been my experience that whenever I do let go, things seem a lot better.

There is a story in the Bible, in Mark 4, about Jesus and his disciples being stuck on the sea when a huge storm comes up.  These guys were shaken and scared, so they go talk to Jesus (who was sleeping) and say "Teacher, do you not care that we are drowning?"  Now the scriptures paint this as a pretty picture.  But quite frankly, I picture these disciples, wet, tired, exhausted, and fear in their eyes, SCREAMING, yelling at Jesus, asking "DO YOU NOT CARE THAT WE ARE DROWNING?!?!?!" with the most desperation in their voices than there has even been in their entire lives.  These guys thought they were going to die.

That is how it feels sometimes.  It feels like we are going to die.  Maybe we know we won't literally die, but it feels like everything we have known will disappear.  We fight, we try to survive, we try to put the boat under control.  Than we come to Jesus, exhausted and desperate,  and ask, "WHY DON'T YOU CARE?!"  

In the Bible story, Jesus goes to the deck of the ship, and tells the storm to be quiet.  And the storm does.  I can only imagine this scene.  (I feel like when we read the Bible, we sometimes make it more tame than it actually was).  Usually, when one talks about the story, that is where they stop.  However, I feel like the power in this story is in the next line.  Jesus turns to the disciples and says:

"Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?"

Boom.

Those two sentences carry so much power, and so much weight.  Ya see, when we go through these storms in our lives, we try to fix it on our own, and we try to get our own way.  When it doesn't work out for us, we cry out to God, asking "DO YOU NOT CARE?"  But guess what, of course he cares.  He's always cared.  He's always been there.  Why are we so afraid?  Do we still have no faith that God will carry us out of it?

We must trust him during the storm.  It says in Psalms 34 that God is closest to the brokenhearted.  He promises us that.  He never promises us that those storms will be easy, or that trusting Him will be easy, he just asks us to do it, and return he will be there for us.

So, I challenge you (and myself) today to let go.  To trust that God can calm the storm in your life.  It might not be the way you want it to be, nor may it be in the time you want it to be.  We are all poor and powerless, but with God, we can make it through, because surely, he is God.  Go on, scream it from the mountains.