WyldLife last week seemed like it was a blast. I say "seemed" because I was not there. My family and I were in Mammoth for a good friend's wedding. While I truly hate missing anything with WyldLife, I am so proud of the leaders we have, and trust that they are more than able to make everything happen without me being there. From the looks of the pictures, and hearing stories from kids, Friday was awesome, and the volunteer leaders that took the reigns did an amazing job!
Andy Wright planned the game. It was a three legged relay race with a twist, one person was blindfolded!
After the game, Grant gave the talk. He talked about the feeling we can get sometimes when it seems like everything is spinning out of control. This fit really well with the game, seeing as how the person blindfolded probably felt pretty out of control the whole time.
Grant shared about a time when he went surfing with some friends on a day that was too big for him. Instead of backing down, he went for it and instead of surfing, found himself in a fight for survival for about 20 minutes in the impact zone. Everything felt totally out of control, and the ocean felt more like a washing machine.
The feeling of being out of control is scary. Most of us like to feel in control, we might not be "control freaks" but we want to have an idea of what is going to happen, and how it might happen.
But sometimes life just doesn't go the way we hoped, and things begin to feel like they are out of control. The truth is that life can be scary, it can be unfair, and things can get messy rather quickly despite our best efforts at being "in control."
Jesus met a father and son that knew this feeling well in Mark 9:20-27. The boy was being controlled by an evil spirit, and as soon as he saw Jesus, things got out of control. The spirit threw the boy into a violent convulsion, eventually making him fall onto the ground writhing and foaming at the mouth. I can't imagine what the father thought at this point. He went on to tell Jesus that this would happen since his son was a little boy, and that sometimes the spirit would throw the boy into fire or water trying to kill him.
The dad was desperate for help, his world and his boy were out of control.
In his desperation, the dad looked at Jesus and said, "Have mercy on us and help us, if you can."
IF YOU CAN.
When things get out of control, and there doesn't seem to be any logical way that they will get any better any time soon, it can be hard to have any sort of faith. Here, the boy's dad has some faith, or he wouldn't have come to Jesus in the first place, but you can hear the hopelessness and doubt in the way he asks Jesus to help. I can relate to this.
Jesus looked at the dad and said, "What do you mean, 'If I can? Anything is possible if a person believes.'" Instantly the man cried out, "I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!"
What an honest prayer. This man did believe, he was standing in front of Jesus asking Jesus to heal his boy, but he still doubted at the same time. He still questioned if Jesus could actually do anything about the situation, if Jesus could actually help his boy. I am a lot like this man… and I don't think Jesus is disappointed with that.
Jesus healed the boy. He didn't shame the father for his lack of faith. He didn't ask the father to go and believe more then come back. Jesus answered both of the father's prayers. He healed the boy, and in that he helped the man overcome his unbelief.
When life gets out of control, we may begin to doubt. It is hard to believe 100% all the time. People getting sick, finances getting tough, and all the terrible things going on throughout the world might make it hard for us to believe. For these middle school kids it might be something like not having a lot of friends, getting made fun of, turmoil at home in the family, friends moving away, or feeling like no one understands them that causes them to begin to question.
But this story shows us that it is OK. We can both believe and not believe at the same time, and Jesus can take it. He isn't ashamed of our unbelief… he isn't disappointed… God is God, and he is big enough to take our doubts. If we are open and honest with him, he can help our unbelief turn into belief.
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