Ezra 3:11 “With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: ‘He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.’ And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”

These words describe the praises of Israel when they laid the foundation for their second temple, a nearly miraculous event considering their recent exile in Babylon, but a much humbler edifice than their first temple had been. Maybe it didn’t mark a return to the good old days. But maybe the good old days hadn’t been so good.

Here, at their fresh start, the important things were still the same. The Lord was still keeping his promises to them as a people. He had promised that he would bring them home after 70 years. Now, here they were. He was still using this people as a key part of his plan to save the world. He had promised that a Savior for all people would be born out this people, and that he would be born on this piece of geography. On this day, they were closer to the fulfillment of those promises than they had ever been before. The Lord was good, and his love endures forever.

We have no less reason to offer our praise. Whether we are small or big, the important things remain the same. God’s grace is still a real thing. He still loves people who don’t deserve it. He still died for people who don’t appreciate it. He still forgives people who won’t stop needing it. Do you know why? He is good. His love endures forever.

Our God is still present with us, and he still works through the power of his word and sacrament. When we gather to worship today, we aren’t just remembering past history, like high school buddies reminiscing about their glory days on the ball field or court. No, the power of Christ’s cross and the power of Jesus’ resurrection are present when the gospel is preached, or poured out in water, or consumed in bread and wine. Hearts will be changed. Even in a cramped little chapel, even in cramped little hearts, the Lord who fills the entire universe will come and make his home, because he is good, and his love endures forever.

This God still trusts us enough to say to us: “I have a little project I have been working on. It’s called ‘Saving the World.’ I am going to leave the project with you. I did all the heavy lifting at the cross. I have given you the tools. Now, go rescue my people from darkness.”

“You mean us, Lord–ordinary people like us, a little church like ours?” “Yes, I mean you. Go and make disciples…” It could be expected that we would trust him after all his kindnesses to us. But that he would trust us with work like that? How is that even possible? “He is good, and his love endures forever.”

In the last book of the Bible, the next to last chapter, heaven is described as a city of incredible size and beauty. So many people live there they can’t be counted. The walls are 1400 miles high. The 12 foundations are made of precious stones. The streets are gold. The gates are each made of a single giant pearl. Now that’s a church!

But that’s not why we will praise God there. We will praise him for the same reason we have praised him here, in our little gatherings, in our humble buildings: “He is good, and his love endures forever.”

Ezra 3:10-12 “When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: ‘He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.’ And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid…”

A new house of God is a good thing, right? Yet many of the people in Ezra’s congregation were weeping, and they weren’t tears of joy. They were old enough to remember the glory of Solomon’s temple. Over twenty tons of gold lined the walls and covered the floors and went into the furnishings of that temple. I have seen the largest church in the world today, St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. Its size is impressive, but it doesn’t have twenty tons of gold in it.

What did the size and glory of Solomon’s temple get for Israel? What did it do for them? It didn’t make them love God more. It didn’t keep them faithful. It didn’t prevent their priests and prophets from becoming corrupt. It didn’t make their young people more inclined to stay with the Bible faith. It didn’t convince people to resist the temptations of religions that were more fun, like the cults of Baal or Molech.

It didn’t prevent God from getting fed up with them, and letting their neighbors invade them and whittle away at their borders. Eventually the Assyrians and Babylonians came and took everybody away. For about 350 years the Jews had the pride of having a cool-looking place in which to worship. But true worship isn’t supposed to be focused on us. It is supposed to be focused on our God and Savior.

Maybe your church seems small. The only gold hangs from the ears and necks of the worshipers, or it is wrapped around their fingers. They take it home with them after each service.

We need to be aware of some small-church temptations. One is becoming falsely critical. Small size is not a vice, but it isn’t a virtue, either. It’s not a badge of honor to wear. It doesn’t make “us” better than “them.” We may have our theological differences with some particular big church. The number of people in attendance isn’t one of them. Pride in self, the “I’m-better-than-you” attitude, is never good for churches or individuals.

There is ditch on the other side of that road as well. Don’t make too much of how negatively others may view small size. Some people may dismiss a church because it can’t support a hundred different programs for a hundred special interest groups. I’ve actually heard people suggest that the bigger a church is, the more God must favor it. You can draw your own conclusions as to what that means for the small church. But don’t buy into the “bigger-is-better” propaganda. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t question whether God smiles on little churches or has a plan for them.

Remember, God still loves small things. “He is good; his love to Israel (and to us) endures forever.” In the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord reminded Israel, “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery…” (Deut. 7:7-8). At the height of their glory as a little empire under King David, Israel’s borders didn’t encompass much more territory than the state of Kentucky or Tennessee, perhaps about the size of the nation of Portugal. God loved them anyway.

Jesus encouraged his little band of followers this way during his ministry: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). His flock may have been little, but his Father was still pleased to give them his gifts.

He even has a special place in his heart for the little people. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:4,10).

Little building, little flock, little people–it doesn’t matter. We may be small, but the Lord is good to us anyway, and his love endures forever.

2 Timothy 2:8-10 “This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”

Paul was being treated like a criminal. He wasn’t in prison because he had been caught abusing children, or stealing church donations, like so many of the clergy scandals you hear about. His “crime” was preaching the gospel about Jesus Christ who died and rose again. He was promoting a God other than the gods the government wanted you to believe. He was teaching a standard of right and wrong that opposed the moral values of the communities in which he worked. His gospel promoted grace and forgiveness, and that rubbed people wrong for two reasons.

First, it suggested to people who wanted to believe they were already good that there was something wrong with them. “What do you mean I have been forgiven? Why should I need forgiveness?”

Then, it worried the authorities who feared that too much talk about grace and forgiveness might give people the idea they had a license to behave badly.

So they locked Paul up. Eventually they amputated his head to shut him up. Do you know how well their plan worked? “God’s word is not chained.” The gospel kept spreading. If anything, it spread faster than before.

The world has often thought that persecution, even execution, could stop the gospel. They think they are pouring water on the fire, and the fire is going to go out. But trying to intimidate Christians with threats, imprisonment, and even death is more like pouring water on a grease fire. You know what happens when you pour water on a grease fire, right? The grease floats on the water. It spreads all over. Soon you have fire everywhere.

Paul knew that they could kill him, just like they killed Jesus, but that they couldn’t kill his gospel. “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” God has his elect, the people he has chosen. You can’t stop the gospel from reaching them. Salvation in Jesus Christ is waiting for them, and us, with eternal glory, so why do we need to be afraid?

Our times are different from the times in which Paul lived. Maybe we fear similar times are coming upon us again. Our government seems less and less friendly to the things biblically faithful Christians believe. Our culture has mostly adopted a different set of morals. It has become acceptable to ridicule our Savior openly. I once saw a sticker on a car urging: “It’s been 2000 years since Jesus died. He’s not coming back. Get over it.” In parts of our world, beheading has come back into favor for getting rid of Christians.

Remember Jesus Christ. Even when they killed him, they couldn’t keep him dead. Since he has risen from the dead he has unleashed his gospel on even the remotest corners of the planet. He still has his elect, the people he has chosen. He will let nothing stand in the way of even one of these dear children hearing the gospel and embracing his forgiving grace. Salvation and eternal glory are still prizes he promises to all of us at the end. He is not dead. His word is not chained. His salvation cannot be undone.

That is our confidence for the mission he gives us today.

John 19:31-35 “Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.”

Over Fourteen hundred years earlier God had given Moses instructions about how Passover lambs were to be chosen and treated. They had to be year old males in the prime of their lives, without blemish. As the lambs were sacrificed their bodies must be kept intact. No bones were to be broken. They were to be perfect in every way. God was accepting these animals in place of the lives of Israel’s first-born sons. For such an exchange he was not satisfied with second-rate, crippled animals. He demanded the best.

On this Passover, Jesus himself was the sacrificial lamb. He offered himself in the prime of life in exchange for all Israel, and all people. After all the abuse his body had taken over the past 24 hours, the point of his legs not being broken could easily be lost on us. But God was making a statement here: his Son is the perfect Passover Lamb. His bones remained intact. He remained fully qualified to give his life in exchange for ours, the perfect sacrifice for sin.

The soldiers then looked for another way to be sure of his death. The point of the spear was likely pressed against his body just below the rib cage. They thrust up into his chest and through his heart. The sudden flow of blood and water would be consistent with the spear piercing first the pericardium, the sack around the heart, and then the heart itself. Thus the last blood Jesus shed for us flowed directly from his very heart.

For those who witnessed this, this piercing was the final blow. If there had been any hope that Jesus had not died, but merely passed out on the cross, it was now gone. The spear removed all doubt that Jesus was dead.

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for us and for our world. He did not come to be merely a great moral example or teacher. He came to give his life as a ransom for many. Those are his own words. The wages of our sins is death, and the blood and water flowing from his side confirmed his death. He is perfect for us here, as he was in life.

With this perfect sacrifice comes this perfect assurance: “The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.”

We may think that it is a modern thing to question the accuracy of the gospels. Such challenges, however, stretch all the way back to the time of the New Testament. John is the only gospel writer who includes these details about the crucifixion. It is likely that he was combating a popular heresy of his time. Some denied Jesus ever had a genuine human body. They claimed he only appeared to be human. Thus they denied that he actually died. They certainly didn’t believe he had to die as some sort of payment for our sins.

Similar denials gnaw at the very foundations of Christian faith. There is nothing more important for us to know or believe than Jesus’ historical death and resurrection. This greatest of all miracles isn’t an incidental idea hanging onto the fringes of Christian belief. It is the centerpiece, the event of human history upon which the entire Christian faith is based.

What do we have to defeat our doubts in an age that wants to reduce Christianity to a list of pious platitudes teaching us to be nice to other people? God has given us eye witnesses. The twelve disciples were not philosophers speculating about the ultimate meaning of life. They were common people like this fisherman named John. They gave eyewitness testimony of events they had seen with their own eyes. There is nothing so profound about the breaking of legs or the blood flowing from a pierced heart that it escapes the eyes of ordinary people. Roman soldiers, and faithful women, and a lone disciple saw it happen. They told others and wrote it down on paper so that you and I could see it happen, too.

Can a dead man still love you? Maybe we find it unsettling to realize that, in Jesus’ death, God has died. But even in death this God is infinitely powerful. Even in death, his love for you continues unimpaired. He was perfect for you in life and in death, as he is in his new life beyond the grave.

2 Timothy 2:8 “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead…”

The Christian faith is more than learning a set of facts. It is more than passing some academic tests. I have often told my confirmation classes that I am not concerned they will ever forget the central teaching of Christianity: “Jesus died on the cross to pay for all your sins.” I am more concerned about the place that truth will hold in their hearts, and the impact that truth will have on their lives.

In the last letter he ever wrote, so far as we know, the Apostle Paul urges his faithful friend Timothy, “Remember Jesus Christ.” Paul was not afraid that Timothy would forget who Jesus was. He is saying, “Here is something worth thinking about all the time. Here is a teaching, a story, a person who will change your life, and change it for the better. Here is the key to keeping your faith alive.”

What do you like to think about? There are many ideas competing for our attention, If someone cuts you off in traffic or you catch someone lying to you at work, your mind may be occupied with anger. If you have bad news from the doctor, or threatening news from the weatherman, your head and heart may fill with worries. If you turn on the TV to numb your mind after a long day at work, there is a ton of garbage available to be dumped into it: lust, violence, and disrespect to name a few.

None of this is good. None of this is compatible with “Love God,” and “Love your neighbor.” But they can be appealing in their own twisted way. This should not surprise us. “The sinful mind” (that is, the kind of fleshly mind we are all born with) “is hostile to God,” Paul writes in Romans. “It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” Eventually, this kind of thinking can land us outside of faith altogether.

Paul and Timothy had to wrestle with their own ungodly thoughts. This letter was Paul’s last. He was in a Roman prison for the second time, and this time he was not going to get out alive. He seemed to sense that. And he knew that his situation wasn’t encouraging for a younger pastor like Timothy. When pastors and missionaries are getting their heads chopped off for preaching the the gospel, it doesn’t make recruiting others for ministry easier. The apostle encouraged Timothy: “Endure hardship like a good soldier.” That’s easy to say, but where were they supposed to find the strength to do it?

“Remember Jesus Christ.” “Focus on our Savior,” Paul urges. “Think about him.” This more than a diversion. Years ago, when my wife and I were getting ready to have our first child, we went to childbirth classes. One way to help mom through the pain of labor is to pick a focal point–any object or place in the room–and concentrate. It’s a diversion, a distraction, to keep you from thinking about the pain.

Jesus is not just a distraction. There is real help for heart and head here. Remember that Jesus Christ is “raised from the dead.” There are two things to think about in those words. First, in order to be raised, Jesus had to die. He knew what it was like to suffer as we do. He even suffered one thing no one reading this has suffered yet: death. His death was not an unfortunate accident or the natural result of celebrating too many birthdays. Again, Paul reminds the Romans: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He died to save us. He died to forgive us. He died to reconcile and restore us to God.

That itself is reason to be brave, patient, and optimistic. But there’s more. Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. More than that, he reigns. After he rose from the grave, he rose to heaven where he rules the universe. From there he promises to pull what’s left of our own decayed bodies out of their graves, renew and restore them, and fill them with the same kind of glory that oozes from every pore of his body now.

If that is so, what is the worst that people who persecute you can do to you–kill you? What is the worst that can come from your health problems or life’s storms, whether literal or figurative–an early death? What’s the worst thing God’s forgiven children will ever get from the sins that trouble their consciences–a casket with their name on it, a funeral in their honor? What of that? Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and so will we!

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead. This still gives us strength to endure.

Mark 4:40 “He said to the disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’”

There is a tone of accusation in Jesus’ question to the disciples who endured the storm on the Sea of Galilee with him in the boat. He isn’t merely asking them why they experienced the emotion of fear. That, I suppose, is clear enough. He is accusing them of being cowards in the Greek. That is a moral failing, not just an emotional one. Deadly storm or not, Jesus expected more of them.

If you are like me, your sympathies may lie more with the disciples on this issue at first. Their reaction didn’t seem so extreme considering the circumstances. We may wonder how Jesus could have expected more of them when the boat was about to sink.

The answer lies outside the story. They heard Jesus speak so many promises. They watched him perform so many miracles. By this time they had seen him command demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead. He had promised to make them fishers of men. Was he just going to let them die without fulfilling his promise? Did they believe his promises or not? Did they believe he was the one he claimed to be or not?

The words he spoke had the power to stop this storm. Didn’t they have the power to change their hearts as well? Didn’t they have the power to convince them that yes, Jesus cared, even if it looked like they were about to drown?

 Jesus’ words, his promises, are still the secret to maintaining our trust in him, though it looks as if our problems are going to sink and drown us. Would he lay down his life to pay for our sins if he intended to hurt us? Would he suffer all he did to save us and then decide to stop working for our good, when it costs him nothing additional to offer his continued help and care? Is he less powerful now that he has returned to heaven?

Jesus has promised to save you, forgive you, and raise you to eternal life. He promises to be with you, to make you strong, to rule the universe for your good. In short, he promises to love you. You know that he does. Have faith. We have every reason to believe that he cares.

Mark 4:39 “He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”

If what Jesus did hadn’t worked, perhaps the disciples would have been concerned about his sanity. Here he is, talking to the storm. It isn’t a person. It has no ears. Jesus isn’t dealing with an unruly teenager whose party got out of control, so now he acts as the stern parent.

It reminds one of the earliest chapters of the Bible. The Maker of the Universe speaks to the world he is making, and things happen. Light, and land, and plants and animals appear. The surface and the skies and the stars get themselves organized.

You see, God’s word is more than an intriguing set of ideas, a collection of timeless truths, a convincing argument in a spiritual debate, or a Jewish take on ancient Middle Eastern history. It is a power. It is a force. It accomplishes what it says.

So we see with the storm. The wind died down. Mark’s Greek pictures something quite dramatic. The winds didn’t blow softer and softer until there was just a gentle breeze. No, the winds stopped dead. One moment you have the kind of driving, damaging winds that get our weathermen to interrupt your regular programming. The next moment there is a dead calm. The air is still. One moment the waves are so high they are breaking over the sides of the boat and filling it with water. The next instant Jesus and his disciples are floating on a sea of glass. This was no natural passing of the storm. This is the power of every word God speaks.

What, then, does this tell us about the man who had been sleeping in the boat? The disciples asked the question, too: “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.” That can be only one person. This isn’t a great prophet requesting God’s help and getting a miracle, like Moses when the Red Sea parted. This is the one who gives the command directly, “Quiet! Be Still!” The wind and the waves obey him. The one they called their teacher, the one you call your Savior, is the God who controls your world.

He still controls your world. The storm you fear so much, that has you feeling so helpless, that has you wondering whether Jesus cares, no matter what kind of storm it is, is still a storm he can turn off in an instant. He promises, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He sits at his Father’s right hand in glory. He rules all things for the good of his church. That’s you! Maybe it looks as though everything is out of control. But Jesus still controls every moment you live, every experience you have.

Sometimes the storms will soak you to the bone. You will get a mouth full of sea water in the process. But Jesus is still in control, and he will not let you be lost.

John 8:32 “The truth will set you free.”

If there is one idea, one concept, associated with the United States of America, it is freedom. Years ago I had a lengthy conversation with a woman from another country who wondered why the United States didn’t have stronger social programs. Why was there such resistance to socialized medicine? Why didn’t the government mandate more maternity and paternity leave? Why should college students have to pay for their own tuition? Didn’t these things make life better for everyone? Wouldn’t we all feel more safe and secure?

Perhaps she was right about feeling safe and secure. I didn’t debate the relative advantages and disadvantages of the government programs for which she was advocating. But I could point out that the great vision that captured most Americans’ hearts and minds was freedom. Our national anthem doesn’t celebrate “the land of the secure and home of the safe.” It calls our country “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Freedom also lies close to the heart of the Christian faith. It is, we should remember, a different kind of freedom than that enshrined in our political documents. It is not the liberty promoted in The Declaration of Independence or protected by the U.S. Constitution. It is not a guarantee that we will be able to speak as we wish, worship as we wish, or gather with whom we wish without being molested. It does not protect us from unreasonable intrusion and treatment by our criminal justice system. It is a freedom the Christian enjoys, that cannot be taken away, even if an oppressive government denies us all the freedoms of life and citizenship we have come to expect.

Jesus provides this indestructible freedom through “the truth.” This isn’t truth in the abstract. He isn’t promising that correct knowledge will free you and empower you to make correct decisions. That may often be true, but these are neither the truth nor the freedom with which he is concerned.

Nor is he commenting on the importance of telling the truth as opposed to obscuring it with lies. It may be true that telling lies constructs a prison of our own making around us. The more we lie, the more fear of exposure imprisons us. Keeping our story straight becomes increasingly difficult. Telling the truth may free us from the trap our lies have created, but Jesus has something else in mind when he promises, “The truth will set you free.”

The truth Jesus promotes is the gospel of grace. The freedom he offers liberates us from sin and death. In his next breath he told the Jews to whom he was speaking, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” But the truth will set you free. It does more than uncover a path to freedom for us to navigate on our own. It picks us up and carries us to freedom in its own arms. It delivers us. In the opening verses of his Revelation, the Apostle John praises Jesus because he loves us “and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” The writer of Hebrews assures us Jesus became a man to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” This gospel not only sets us free. It is a gift, a blessing God provides for free.

As American Christians celebrate Independence Day, we thank God for the freedoms that allow us to live our faith and share it with relative safety and ease. But even if these freedoms fail, Jesus’ truth has set our souls free. No government or power can take that freedom away.

Mark 4:37-38  “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’”

Radio personality and consumer advice expert Clark Howard (now retired) coined the phrase, “customer no-service.” It refers to the lack of help on the other end of the phone. I’m sure you are familiar with this scenario: You dial the help number, and you get a pre-recorded voice. It provides a menu of choices for different situations. Each number takes you to another menu of pre-recorded choices. Some of those take you to still another set. Where does it end?

Sometimes you talk to a live person, but it is clear they are speaking to you from the other side of some ocean. And they aren’t really listening to you. They are working from a script. Maybe you feel you were making more progress with the robo-voice and the numbers on your phone’s keypad.

There’s nothing worse than being put on hold for the rest of your day, consigned to a purgatory where you have to listen to hours of elevator music while you wait for a person to come back on the line. Does anyone care about my problem? Is customer service actually going to help?

Maybe you have felt the same way about your prayers. You dial up the Lord for help, but it seems as though your request is met with silence. Jesus’ disciples got to that point fighting a storm that was about to sink their boat. Desperate for help, they ask, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

We never expect Jesus to ignore us. His lack of attention may have surprised the disciples even more. This little boat trip had been his idea in the first place! Have you ever gone on a trip your children were so excited to make that they were already in their seats buckled in while you were still loading the car? Jesus is sitting in the boat, waiting for his disciples to get going.

Do your troubles have that kind of feel sometimes? “Lord, I didn’t do something wrong to end up in this situation. You put me here.” Relationships can work that way. In my ministry I have tried to serve people who fought against the very help they were asking for. They pressured me to do things that weren’t right. And they didn’t go away. “Lord, you put them here. What am I supposed to do?”

Maybe, like the twelve disciples, following Jesus has put you in a place of real physical danger. You might think that Jesus would be quick to come to the rescue then. You wouldn’t expect him to ignore you in your time of need.

But there are other things he has for us to learn. Sometimes our experience, our skill, and our strength are our downfall. The disciples don’t go to Jesus for help immediately. They try to fight this themselves. If anyone on earth knew what to do in a storm on the Sea of Galilee, it was these men. Most of them were fishermen. The sea was their life. This was the very kind of boat they sailed. This was the lake where they had made their living.

When they do turn to Jesus for help, their attitude isn’t confident trust or humble submission. There is a tone of accusation in their voice, implying Jesus doesn’t care. They have lost hope. They are full of despair. They are convinced they are going to drown.

Does it ever seem like Jesus is sleeping in the back of your boat, ignoring you and the storm you are fighting? We want to see his power bailing us out, cleaning up the mess, setting everything right in dramatic fashion. We pray. We plead. Nothing.

We don’t consider that our greater need may be to experience how weak and helpless we are. We sing about it in “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” “Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong.” We can read examples of it in a dozen Bible stories. We hear the words directly from Jesus’ mouth. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” But nothing drives the point home like the school of experience. There are no lessons we learn better than the ones we actually live.

And the “I-can-do-it-all-by-myself” spirit is nowhere more dangerous than it is in our spiritual lives. It may be cute when toddlers and preschoolers are trying to be like their parents. It is deadly to faith when children of God think, “I’ve got the power to conquer this sin,” or “I can cope with what life throws at me without growing deeper in prayer and Scripture,” or “my skills and abilities alone will get me through anything.”

Only Jesus saves. He forgives sins, and he alone. He rescues us from the messes we create, and the ones that seem to be foisted upon us. He isn’t sleeping. He is waiting for us to set aside our self-reliance and put our trust in him.

Yes, Jesus cares if you drown. If it seems like he isn’t helping, it’s not because he is ignoring you. He may be letting you see, really see, how much you need him after all.