"Measure" of Faith

When following a recipe, at what point does a "dash" of salt or a "pinch" of paprika become something you should actually measure?  How about that phrase, "salt to taste". What does that mean?  

This past Sunday, our Pastor spoke on the incident with the disciples and Jesus, as recorded in Luke 8:22-25. You may recall the story; they are in the boat, crossing the Sea of Galilee, a violent storm erupts, Jesus is asleep in the boat, the disciples panic and wake him shouting, "Master, Master, we are perishing!".  Jesus woke up, rebuked the storm then rebukes the disciples with this stinging question, "Where is your faith?"

I learned a long time ago that behind every question is a statement. What is the statement behind Jesus' question? "Your faith does not measure up!" Or "If you had faith to keep rowing you could handle this on your own!"

Panic during a storm can make us do some pretty unreasonable things. One of those might entail the "d" word - doubt. We begin to question whether we are doing the right thing, going the right direction, making the right choices. The stronger the storm the bigger our questions become.

I also know that at times we confuse emotion with faith. In other words, we mingle what we "feel" with where we want our faith to lead us. Then when the "feeling" fades, our so-called faith slides down the drain with it.

The disciples, just like you and I, had to learn some hard lessons about faith. One of them - that it is not a measurable quality. You don't take a "dash" here or a "pinch" there based on your circumstances.

Faith is a matter of the will. It is the confidence and courage in our belief that allows us to see our way through the storms. We may be panicking, but Jesus is "asleep" in the back of the boat knowing all along that things are going to be fine, if we will just keep rowing.