I loved this piece by my friend and Jesuit priest (but don’t hold that against him) Jim Martin on finding God in the hard stuff. I thought you’d all like it, too.
Click here for the original link.
“Don’t you care about us?” That’s not the voice of a few petulant children, but of Jesus’s disciples in a famous story from the New Testament called the “storm at sea.” After a long day of preaching, Jesus and his friends climb into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. He falls asleep (not surprising given the long hours, the poor conditions in which he lived and the overwhelming demands on his time), when a storm suddenly whips up. (Even today on the Sea of Galilee squalls appear as if from nowhere.)
The little boat starts taking on water and the disciples, a fearful bunch in normal circumstances, are terrified. They wake up Jesus and shout, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” Jesus quickly stills the storm and quiets them down as well. “Why are you afraid?” he asks. “Have you no faith?”
You don’t have to be Christian to find yourself in this utterly human story. Which of us, in the midst of life’s storms (unemployment, financial worries, stress at work, serious illness, the death of a loved one) hasn’t cried out, “Don’t you care about me, God?” Who hasn’t wondered if God is really listening? Why does it seem that God is asleep?
When it’s hard to find God in our current troubles, sometimes all it takes to calm our storms is remembering where God has already been. It’s always easier to see God in retrospect. Looking back, you can see where God was with you during frightening times–perhaps in the guise of a wise mentor, a supportive family member or a nurturing faith community. This is not to downplay the terror of life’s frequent storms, but rather to say that while it may seem that God is asleep, God is in fact right there with you.
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