Where Is Your Faith?
Luke 8:25 New International Version (NIV)
25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.
Read: Luke 8:22-25
Where is your pencil? I have been an elementary teacher for over twenty years and I wonder how many times those words have flowed from my lips. Students will claim that they are working but are not using the most essential tool to complete the task. I want to know where they put it now that it is time to work.
When someone asks you the location of something they are not wondering if you own something but rather where did you put it. At home this is often the case for our television remote. When I ask where is the remote? I am not asking if we own a remote, I am asking where someone put it now that we need it.
In the eighth chapter of Luke, the disciples are in the midst of a storm. The storm has suddenly arrived without warning. It has rocked their boat but even more importantly it has rocked their faith. They are in fear for their lives and Jesus responds with the words, “Where is your faith?” He is not asking if they have faith. He is asking where they put it or more importantly who or what that they have put their faith in.
When you lose a child, it is larger than any storm you can face. It is a storm that has arrived without warning. Fear can take over your life. Fear of losing someone else you love. Fear of facing today. Fear of what the future holds. You do not want to hear the words, “Where is your faith?” It may seem like a question that lacks compassion. We may feel defensive or hurt by those words. Yet it is the most important question. Now that this storm has entered your life. Where have you placed your faith? The world offers temporary fixes to the storm. Just as the disciples struggled against the storm. Our worldly fixes can numb the pain for a moment but they do not have the power to calm the storm.
The storm of grief rages. The waves of despair make us feel as if our boat is sinking.Where is our faith? What or who have we placed it in? The world offers a cup to bail water from the boat. Jesus can calm the storm. Where will you place your faith?
