Don't you care? Who are you?

Nichole and I went to an evening service at our church today. The pastor of worship, Dave Rohrer, gave the message.

The sermon was from Mark 4:35-41, where Jesus calms the sea. In this story, well known to most Christians, the disciples and Jesus are crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat when a storm arises. The disciples are in a panic, but Jesus continues to sleep through the storm. The disciples awake Jesus with the question, "Don't you care that we are all going to die?"

Jesus immediately rebukes the storm and asks the disciples where their faith is. Why do they have so little faith?

Presumably Jesus fluffs his pillow and goes back to sleep. When he does, the disciples fearfully wonder among themselves, "Who is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?"

In our own lives of walking with God through Jesus, these are the very questions we tend to ask God. "Don't you care?" "Who are you?"

When my mom died of cancer, and for the entire time previous, these kinds of questions readily sprang to mind. Does God care? Why does he not stop the suffering? Why does he allow or even will these problems? Who is God REALLY, anyway? What is His character after all?

The good news is that God can stand up to these kinds of questions. The disciples were doubters and questioners far more than they were believers, but Jesus still led them and taught them and died for them. He even entrusted the leadership of the church to them. What Jesus told his original disciples he also tells us, "You have not chosen me. I have chosen you" (John 15:16). Our relationship with God which is through Jesus is not something that we chose. It is not something that we started. It is not something that we will finish. God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - is the author and OWNER of our salvation. Redemption is His, not ours. We cannot lose something that was never ours to begin with. What God started He will finish. In the mean time, He can put up with our questions and even our anger, because salvation is entirely by grace. Amen.