Words
of
Hope

By Dr. Jon Wilson

Love Brings Hope

Too often pastors have given people the false impression that the Christian life is like a pleasant little canoe trip down some gently flowing stream. Not at all!

It’s more like a white water adventure with challenges around every rock and bend in the river.

The Christian life isn’t like a perpetual picnic with the sun always shining golden bright each day. The storms of life fall on all of us, at any time, at any moment. They have a way of upsetting the calm of believers’ lives, who sometimes think they have immunity from life’s storms. Often suddenly, unexpectedly, in the areas of health, our family or our careers, storms fall upon us that bring depression, disappointment, discomfort, defeat, loneliness, rejection and fear.

Many people when they’re in trouble say, "Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this kind of trouble?" Experiencing trouble doesn’t necessarily mean that we are out of God’s will. In fact, it may mean that you’re directly in the center of God’s will.

In Matthew 14, Jesus sent the disciples out in a boat while he went up on a mountain to pray. Immediately a storm arose and the disciples were fearful. The last time they had experienced a severe storm at sea, Jesus had been in the boat with them. This time he was miles away and the disciples thought that Jesus had forgotten about them.

He hadn’t forgotten them. He was not, as some might think, so focused in prayer that he failed to see the misfortune of his friends.

You see, even though the disciples didn’t know where Jesus was, Jesus knew where they were. Even when he prayed on the mountain, his disciples were foremost in his thoughts. Through this experience, Jesus was taking the disciples to the next level of faith. He was teaching them just as he teaches us today that our Lord never slumbers, never sleeps. He is always watching over us, even when the storms of life threaten to capsize us.

God may seem distant, but he is with us. He cares. He sees. He watches. He comes. Jesus, in the midst of that storm, walked on the water to rescue the disciples. Because he loved his disciples, he couldn’t idly stand by and see them overcome by the storm. Love made Jesus go. He didn’t just pray for his friends up on the mountain. He prayed for them, but when they needed him, he went to them in the storm.

Being a believer does not mean that we will not experience the storms of life. It simply means that when the storms of life. It simply means that when the storms of life come, he will be with us and that he will meet us, if we are open, in unexpected ways. To take it a step further:

If we, in our journey through life, want to be like Jesus, we can’t walk on water, but we can reach out in our communities and to one another in little unexpected, caring ways—little unexpected acts of love that will show a watching world that believers are different because of our love.

Rev. Jon Wilson D. Min. lives in Calabasas and is the Senior Pastor of Canoga Park Presbyterian Church in Canoga Park, 22103 Vanowen. You may hear him speak on Sundays at the traditional 9:00 a.m. service, or the contemporary service at 10:30 a.m. You may contact him at Jonwclergy@aol.com. Call the church at (818) 883-3510.