Where Is Your Faith by Libby Johnson

"He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples." Luke 8:24b-25

One of my favorite things about reading the scriptures is that new things can pop out at you at any given moment. Recently, I was reading slowly through the gospel of Luke, and I had a moment such as this. Luke chapter eight finds Jesus and his disciples sailing across a lake, at which point Jesus decides to catch some shut-eye.

A storm comes up and finding themselves in real danger, Jesus’s disciples are frantic. This portion of chapter eight is short, so we can’t know for sure what happened between the time Jesus fell asleep and the storm arose. However, Luke’s writing makes it seem as though the disciples’ first reaction is terror and panic. Verse 24 says, “The disciples went and woke him saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
 
Not, “We’re with Jesus, we’ll be okay,” nor “I know! Let’s just ask Jesus for help!” Nope. The disciples catapulted right past logic, instead choosing panic and fear. It’s easy to read about this short incident and judge the disciples for their lack of faith and evident fear. But, I really think that many of us react the same way when faced with difficult circumstances.

I am an anxious, fearful person. I always have been, and seldom when faced with danger or a dilemma is my first thought rational, calm, or even remotely tied to the idea of asking God for help. Rather, my thoughts are typically running through worst case scenarios, measuring the impending doom. I too, like the disciples, cry: “I’m going to drown!”
 
I’ve read this story countless times, but this last time I realized like never before that all the disciples had to do was ask Jesus for help. They didn’t need to run around, trying to find their own solution. They didn’t need to fear. They didn’t need to worry. Jesus was quite literally there the whole time; they knew how powerful he was and yet their first inclination was not to ask Jesus for help, but to fear.

I always thought Jesus’s reply of “Where is your faith?” as a little harsh. I mean, come on Jesus, drowning was a very real possibility. Anyone would be freaking out. But I read “Where is your faith?” now not as a stern reprimand, but as a gentle, admonishing reminder. Where is your faith? When faced with danger or a dilemma, where is your faith? Is it first on your list of solutions, or further down, past your own efforts?
 
Just like he was present with the disciples in their moment of fear, Jesus the Christ is present with us in every moment of our lives. So, we need not fear, but simply remember: where is our faith?