July 2015

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Praise Him, skies above! Praise him, vapors high above the clouds! Let every created thing give praise to the Lord. . ."
Psalm 148: 4 - 5a


Weathers

            Rain! Again last night. I'm beginning to wonder if the garden is ever going to dry out enough for me to get in there to weed without sinking to my ankles in mud. The Weather Channel reports 9.09 inches of rain in our area in June, twice our historical average for the month, and there's more rain in the forecast. Looking out at this morning's gray skies, it doesn't take much faith to believe it will happen. Remember the drought three years ago when it seemed like the sky had forgotten how to rain? Now it seems to have forgotten how to stop. Drought or deluge, it takes a lot of faith to see beyond current conditions.

            In the third year of a drought in Israel, the prophet Elijah needed faith that God would answer his prayer for rain. And he had it. In abundance! Before there was even a cloud in the sky he told King Ahab,

Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming! (I Kings 18: 41).

            Elijah then prayed fervently.  Each time he looked up from prayer, he asked his servant to go look out over the sea for a cloud.  On the seventh time, the servant came back saying,

            I saw a little cloud about the size of a man's hand rising from the sea (vs.44a).

That was all it took for Elijah to warn Ahab a second time,

            "Climb into your chariot and go back home.  If you don't hurry, the rain will stop you!"

And soon the sky was black with clouds.  A heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm, and Ahab left quickly for Jezreel (vss 44b-45).

            Centuries later, on the Sea of Galilee, another fierce storm came up, frightening the disciples in the fishing boat in which they usually felt so at home. They woke Jesus up, shouting, Teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown?" (Mark 4:38b).

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Silence! Be Still!" Suddenly the wind stopped and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" (vss 39 - 40).

            For a long time Jesus' question to them puzzled me. Hadn't they gone to straight to Him and not to other solutions or gods when they were in trouble? Didn't that demonstrate their faith in Him? What did He mean by, "Do you still have no faith?" And then one day, something totally outside any previous understanding of faith I'd had suggested itself to me. Something big and new and almost as scary as being in a storm-rocked boat. What if Jesus' question to the disciples meant he wanted them to understand that they hadn't needed him to calm the storm? What if he was trying to get it across to them that if they'd had enough faith, they could have calmed the storm themselves?

            Was I thinking too big? Too far outside the faith boat? Overstepping? But then, the same Teacher also said,

"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible" (Matthew 17:20).

            If this new way of looking at Jesus' question to his disciples on the boat that stormy night was right, what did that say about my own faith? But then, I really didn't have to ask; I knew. He could say the same to me.

            In this day of unpredictable weathers of all kinds--meteorological, health-related, religious, political, cultural, financial, and so on--I also know what my faith should look like. But I'm trying to look beyond my current condition by praying with another who prayed centuries ago, "I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). Even that isn't impossible.

Daye Phillippo 

July 2015

Photo credit: "Moody Beulah" by Marcia Dalton