When things are going well, it is all but taken for granted. It is not in the forefront of our minds. It almost seems to lie dormant until necessary. Seldom spoken of…often times ignored.
It is a gift. It was free. It cost us nothing. Some people long for it, while others deny its very existence — as pure foolishness, hocus – pocus, voodoo.
But when the path becomes too long, when the mountain terrain is insurmountable, when the unthinkable happens, when the waters of chaos rush over our heads, when we are in shock and at wits ends, it is present.
Like a candle burning off in the great darkness, it calls, beckons and its flickering flame, flickers with hope, where moments before there was no hope…what-so-ever.
It silences and drowns out other messages – and other voices with a “maybe” or a “perhaps” or a “let’s see.”
What we are talking about and referring to is something called “faith.”
In its simplest form it is “trust” and it is “hope” – it is also “life sustaining” and reassuring.
It is a small, tiny, quieted voice within.
In its more complex forms it is “belief.”
When something major happens, life-altering, life-changing, potentially threatening – it awakens from its seeming dormancy. Its strength engages…and spars…and takes on…
It is rekindled and is strong. It is hope-filled.
Apparently things were not going well for the disciples of Jesus. Reality was beginning to settle in. This was not all fun and games and notoriety. Their lives too, might be on the line – someday. And, they did not like or appreciate this new reality.
And so they asked for more faith. Faith for the future… Faith for the days and the nights that lie ahead…
And Jesus told them, there’s was sufficient…more faith…was not necessary. God gives us what we need. God gives us an abundance. There is no scarcity, they will not “run out”…or “use up” the faith that is within them.
Which brings me very nicely to September 11th, 2001 (fifteen years ago!)
People were lost, they were in shock, they did not have the words or the language to express their feelings. An entire nation suffered…and was suffering.
“Where is God in all of this,” people asked? It is a much sought after question in times of the “unimaginable” and the “unthinkable.” But the unimaginable and the unthinkable do happen!
And so it was, that a man named Frank Silecchia, a construction worker and new volunteer at World Trade Center wreckage went to work and tried to make sense of it.
“Where is God,” he asked himself?
On that particular morning – he worked amid the carnage of the collapsed Tower One on building six – where he found a crude chamber in the midst of all the clutter.
It was through the dusty sunrise that he spotted it. It appeared to be a cross, made of girders and beams standing upright in the midst of all the clutter.
It was right in the middle – in the very heart of all of the devastation. It was like his question was being answered. God was there. In the middle of everything, in the middle of it all. The discovery dared an entire nation to hope.
It was a symbol in the shards, a cross found in the midst of crisis.
The absence of God – it is said, “does us in.” The presence of God fills us with hope, even in the midst of tragedy.
We can deal with the ambulance – if Jesus is in it.
We can deal with the oncology chair or bed – if Jesus is present with us.
We can stomach the ICU – if God is near.
We can face the empty house and the aloneness, if God is with us and in the house.
We can face whatever life throws at us, if we are not alone, if we are surrounded with love, if we know that God is there, too! The question is – “no matter what the crisis is” – can you find God, there in the midst?
In your journey called faith, you do not travel this journey alone…Nor have you got this far – on your own.
No, the disciples did not need more faith, they just needed to rely upon the faith that they already had.
God was with them, he would not abandon them, and he would be with them to the end. True to his promise, true to his word, God is with us always.
Have faith, hope and trust. God is with you, today and always.
It’s called, “faith.”