Growing Faith

 Luke 8:24-25a - And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?”

In most essential skills of life and work, we learn best by first watching an expert and listening to his or her instructions. Next, we help the expert, ask questions and receive feedback. Step three involves us doing the task alone with the expert watching and providing some correction and encouragement. For most of us, step four is the scary one: we do it alone. I can be more confident if the expert is right next to me to get me out of the jam if I mess up, but we can never grow or achieve our full potential until we can do it alone so the expert is free to train another. Hopefully, we, too, will continue to grow in our skills so we can train others. This applies in learning to cook, to drive, job skills, leadership, and even spiritual growth. This is the key to multiplication in any endeavor.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is developing critical faith and leadership skills in a ragtag bunch of guys who will one day lay the ground work for the greatest organization in the history of the world: The Church. It has outlasted thousands of governmental regimes and spans the globe. Up to this point in the story, Jesus has done all of the teaching and miracles, yet he knows the day will come when he will physically leave planet earth and leave the ministry in the hands of his disciples. They will need to be ready to take over.

Today’s story is the beginning of the second step in the process. In the next two chapters of Luke we will see Jesus sending the disciples out on their own for short ministry trips with feedback sessions, but at this point he is with them, yet he is asleep when their first challenge comes: a storm on the lake that threatens to sink their ship. They wake Jesus, he calms the sea, and then he asks them this question: “Where is your faith?” It is like he is asking, “Is your faith in me doing the work for you? Is your faith in my faith? For you to accomplish what I am calling you to, you will need to have a faith of your own.”

This principle can be applied in so many ways. I encourage you to reflect on your own life. Is there a way in which you need to step out and no longer lean on another’s faith or action?