But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”-Mark 4:38-40

It has always been there but I never paid any attention to it. I was too distracted by the storm. The miracle overshadowed my reflection. I thought I understood what Jesus meant by lack of faith. Now, everything seems little different; I listened to the story instead. I did not try to impose my ideas on it. Just listened to it and heard the plea of the disciples, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” Then I looked around and realized that the same plea was once uttered by our children and teens.

Our ministry is with children and teens whose world came tumbling down. Most of them found to be God to be silent or “sleeping” while they felt desperate and lost. In their hearts, they believed that God must not care if they perished. Their passage to the streets is a symbol of resignation. They got tired of waiting for God to wake up. They believe that they are on their own in this life. However, none of them would ever verbalize it. It would have been better if they followed the examples of the disciples and cried out to God, “Do you care that we are perishing?” Instead they carry in their souls this poignant thought that they are alone and rejected even by the only One they hope could save them. Perhaps, this is our task here. Perhaps it is our responsibility to help and encourage them to say the words of the disciples. It was these words that woke Jesus from His slumber.

For years, I have heard and even preached a few sermons myself about the lack of faith in the disciples. However, I did not really understand what was exactly missing in their faith. I used to think that they lacked the faith to believe that Jesus could calm the storm. If this was the case, then it would be unfair of Jesus to rebuke them. No one in their right mind could have imagined this from a religious leader. Whenever there is a hurricane approaching in a given place, no one in their right mind is going to heed a religious leader asking people to stay put and pray the storm away. We expect to evacuate to a safer place because it is the wise and right to do. God has given us the wisdom to act accordingly. Besides, Faith is always in accordance with wisdom but not human reasoning. The latter is limited but wisdom is open and universal. This is where the disciples failed. They used their reasoning. They judged Jesus by the circumstances, not allowing their faith to inform them. Faith produces wisdom. They were companions of Jesus. They had seen Him heal and teach and interact with the people. Yet they doubted whether He cared for them. A simple storm doesn’t change His nature or character. We cannot allow one circumstance or incident to define who God is.

Jesus slept peacefully.

In most situations in our lives, instead of sleeping, we could say God was silent. What the disciples failed to understand is that silence doesn’t mean absence. Jesus was in the boat with them. Perhaps, for many, this does not suffice. Many don’t want a God who suffers with them but One who resolves all their problems. Some churches promote this false ”God”. They claim that our faith can make everything calm and tranquil in our lives. This is a god doesn’t exist. The atheists and agnostics have come to disbelieve in this conjecture. This false teaching also reduces faith into some kind of special and magical tool to get what we want. Whereas the gospel teaches that faith reveals to us the nature of God. It reveals to us a God who chooses to suffer rather than resolve all our problems. It is a God who looks at life from the perspective of the one who is rejected and suffers. Why suffer and not solve the problems and end suffering? Well, God truly has the choice in this matter and He makes an option to suffer. I can’t say any more than this. God is God and He has made His choice. Jesus would rather be sleeping in the boat on brink of destruction than to be safe on shore. If we want to discover this Jesus, then we need to be on the boat amidst the storms of life. We need to be with those whose world is tumbling down. Then we discover some wonderful things about our God.

“Do you care that we are perishing?”

It is not wrong to ask God this question. I think that it would be wrong for me to try to answer it. It is a question only God can answer. However, we cannot know God intimately if we have not asked this question. I am sure that most of us felt moments when we thought that God is either sleeping or not interested. It is not a question that goes unanswered. The answer comes from faith and faith comes from God; not forgetting that it is also part of wisdom.

Those who have received the answer know where their place is in the world. It is not in safe shores but in the boat in the midst of the storm where people feel abandoned and hopeless. While we cannot say why God is silent but we can testify to the fact that He is always present, perhaps even through our presence. This is our hope and prayer for our children and teens living in the streets.