Whom Do You Trust?

"A furious storm came up on the lake." The disciples who were with Jesus in the boat thought it was all over. "This has to be the worst thing ever. We're going to die."

"The whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water." The people from the town came running to Jesus. Their economy was under serious siege. "This has to be the worst thing ever. We're going to have nothing."

Ever since I was a boy old enough to hear the adult conversations I can remember listening to frightened and frustrated people. "I am horrified to think about the society in which my grandchildren will be raised. These have to be the last days. They are so much worse than ever before. Our economy is a shambles."

Please don't hear me saying that there is little wrong with our economic situation, moral climate, spiritual blindness, or political manipulations. There is plenty wrong with all of that. There are several ways in which it seems worse than it was when we were younger, or when our nation was younger. But a study of history will make us rethink some things. As awful as that moral situation is in our nation we are not close to the stench in first and second century Rome (before its fall, by-the-way). As chaotic as local, regional, and national politics seem to be, we are a long way from being as lawless as was the western frontier in this country — and as faithless. Sin has always been a dominating presence in every society that I've heard about. It is now too! And salvation has never come from a squeaky clean political culture, a stellar moral atmosphere, or a prosperous economic system. It isn't likely that we're going to find that, past, present, or future.

Storms are going to come. There are going to be seasons of peace and hope. Healing moments are going to happen. There are going to be scary economic times. Uncertainly will often reign for the moment. But life and salvation come from trusting Jesus, only from that. It was true in the early part of the first century A.D. It is true today. It will be true for however many tomorrows God allows. "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"