Musings: Acknowledgement is not enough

This past sunday I listened to a great sermon on Mark 4:35-41 ("Jesus Stills the Sea" or, as it is more commonly known in the NIV, "Jesus Calms the Storm"). The speaker introduced the possibility that Mark included this passage not necessarily to tell us not what to do as believers of Christ (read: we need to have stronger faith), but to empathize with us in our weaknesses and failures as believers of Christ and to encourage us to acknowledge God's presence in the midst of our weaknesses, failures, and dark seasons of life. After all, the texts says that Jesus rebukes the storm, then seems to rebuke the disciples for their lack of faith, and the disciples are terrified; BUT throughout it all (before and after this miracle) Jesus stays with his disciples, not leaving them even if frustration came into the picture time and time again.

However, as I sat there listening to this sermon, the gears in my brain started turning and while I agree much of the message, I started to see this text in a different light building on on what the speaker said. Here are my thoughts:

The terror of the disciples:
The speaker made a great observation in that the disciples (some of them being fisherman) would have known weather patterns know that storm clouds were headed their way, but choose to follow Jesus into the boat anyway. They knew what was coming, so I think they were afraid when the fierce storm and crazy came and they all thought they were going to die (the disciples were only human), but I don't think they were terrified of the storm. I think they were terrified of Jesus. The text says that the disciples became "very much afraid" after Jesus calms the storm down and asks, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" (v. 40).

Like I said before, I don't think they were terrified of the storm; I think they were terrified of Jesus. 

Their perception of Jesus:
Jesus was their teacher, their leader, their "Dai Lo," and they saw firsthand all the miracles He performed, listened to His teachings, and saw the reactions of all the people who were healed by Him. Jesus was with them, but I think to the disciples He was separate from them at the same time; He was the ultimate teacher with the ultimate power, and they were His little minions ready to do what He asked at His beck and call. They acknowledged Jesus Christ as a result of their experience of being in His literal physical presence during their time together and would have followed Him anywhere (even onto a boat headed into a storm), but it wasn't enough.

So what was missing? What was Jesus talking about when He said ""Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" and why did this these words and Jesus' act of calming the storm terrify the disciples so much?

I think the missing piece here was trust and faith that Jesus loved them.

They obviously respected and loved Jesus, but I don't think they fully and wholeheartedly believed that He loved them back in the same way or as deeply as Jesus actually loved them (because that would have been too good to true, perhaps?). This is obviously an assumption on my part - only the disciples could really answer that for us - but I think from the text and other passages in the Bible, it is not a far-fetched assumption.

Why do I think this? Because of their reaction of terror in the text. I think they were terrified of Jesus because they were terrified of this guy who was so powerful (He literally shut that storm down with TWO WORDS) who could possibly hurt them, toss them away, or overpower them if they didn't stay in line with what He wanted them to do like the worst of the worst of dictators.

However, Jesus is not a dictator. He is Love and He loves us just as He loved those disciples. If the disciples were confident in the fact that they knew Jesus loved them, they would have seen Jesus as the Best Ally and would have felt comfort and safety in knowing He was so powerful that even weather couldn't get the best of Him. Being terrified would have been the last reaction they would have had, but they were terrified in His presence after this miracle because they lacked trust and faith that Jesus loved them

I think this is the lesson here: we need to both acknowledge God's presence and trust with our entire beings that God loves us; This is the only way our faith stands a chance.

Acknowledging God is so important, but trusting that He loves us is equally as important. It changes your whole mindset and perspective, especially in the dark valleys of life. If you acknowledge God's presence in the hard times but don't think He loves you, you will inevitably start thinking He is an unloving God whose sole purpose is to spite you or that you are doing something wrong and are being punished for not being good enough or that there is simply something wrong with you which is why God present with you but ignoring your pleas and cries for help. It's no wonder that without trusting that God loves us our faith may not stand a chance.

If you, however, acknowledge God's presence in your life in the hard times and have unwavering trust that God loves you, this changes everything. God remains your Best and Most Faithful Ally, the most Loving Being that hurts seeing you hurt, and Someone who is for you and who is working to calm the storm right down and bring you back to safety because He loves you.

He is with you, He loves you, and He is for you.

Once again, it all comes back to love. And it makes sense, because you can't acknowledge God without acknowledging His love BECAUSE HE IS LOVE. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love...

Boom.

Musings: Yet another paradox

Something was placed on my heart yesterday morning that I really want to share; it's something that blew my mind (God has the tendency to do that to me lol) but more importantly it's something I feel we need to recognize before we can truly enter into the beautiful ever-deepening cycle of Love:

We are both undeserving AND deserving of Love.

WHAT. 

I know it's hard to wrap your head around (believe me, I was floored when this was first revealed to me), but stay with me here. It's yet another parodox that makes no sense at all, but also makes complete sense at the same time (there are just so many when it comes to God, no?). Ok, let me try to explain this further...

If we really fully recognize God for who He is while seeing ourselves for who we are, I really feel that there would be no dispute re: the seemingly non-sensical statement above. I don't really feel the need to explain why we are undeserving of Love because, at least from the perspective of someone who grew up in the church, this concept has been engrained into our minds and is the general consensus in the church as a whole. Now please don't misunderstand me here; I am NOT disagreeing with this in anyway because I fully agree that we are completely undeserving of grace - after all, that is what grace is: "the free unmerited favour of God."  However, while the majority of people (including myself until literally yesterday morning) stop here, I strongly believe there is more to this than simply the first half of the statement (the 'undeserving' part). 

You see, God sees us as people of worth; This is why He came down from Heaven to live among us to show us how to live in through giving and receiving love in the purest of ways - the way love was originally designed and intended to be experienced. So for us to merely focus on the 'undeserving' half of the statement, but entirely disregard the second half would be to deny God's perspective of us: beings of worth. In His perspective, we are worthy of grace and Love so He, in turn, demonstrated His grace and Love in the deepest of ways: through Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, coming to Earth to live among us in order to show us a whole new way of living and to literally save us from ourselves. 

God sees us as people of worth so, from His perspective, we are deserving of Love. Because He sees us as people of worth He makes us worthy so, in the light of this truth, we can recognize with humility that we ARE deserving of Love. 

Why is this recognizing this important? Well, in denying the second half of the statement while focusing solely first, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you are so undeserving of anything at all and are merely nothing but a piece of crap, and when you start thinking along these lines there is no way you can truly love yourself. 

What? Love yourself? But why is that important? After all, aren't we called to love others anyway?

Well, yes. Most definitely yes. And we can trust this to be true because it is all here in the Great Commandment: "37And He [Jesus] said to him [the guy asking what the greatest commandment was], "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38This is the great and foremost commandment. 39The second is like it, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."" (Matthew 22:37-39, emphasis mine).

As yourself. Oh, how often we forget about these two beautifully important words at the end of that second commandment. Another way to rephrase this line would be, "Love your neighbour the way you love yourself." So why is loving yourself important? Because of those two beautifully important words that Jesus intentionally included here. If you're still lost, I'll break it down for you now: if you don't love yourself, you cannot love others the way we are called to love others; It's all there in verse 39, in the words that came straight from the the mouth of God Himself. 

However, not only does not loving ourselves impact our ability to love others, I also think that not loving ourselves impacts our ability to love God too. If you truly love someone, how could you completely disregard and deny their opinion? If God sees is as people of worth and we fully love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds (as we are called to love Him in verse 37), then how could we possibly even consider denying His perspective that we are people of worth and worthy of Love?

I simply don't think we can. 

So here we are, back at the very beginning again: We are both undeserving AND deserving of Love.

Yet another paradox that makes no sense but complete sense at the same time which makes the deep and beautiful mystery of God that much greater.