A Sinking Boat

OK, it is Christmas Eve and you are thinking, "God does not care.  If there is a God, it is not helping me."  Christmas can be a tough time for skeptics, doubters, and agnostics.  Atheists have pretty much made peace with this season.  If you are feeling a bit humbug or ignored by God, you might see yourself as in a "Sinking Boat."  Your thinking would be familiar to the original Chosen Twelve of Jesus.  They were all in a boat in the middle of a sea and there was a storm.  Water was coming into the boat from the waves.  Meanwhile, Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat.  The Twelve got upset.  "Don't you care that we are drowning," they shout to wake Jesus up.  I often feel that way.  "Hey, God, I got some stormy time here in my life.  Are you paying attention?  Are you going to keep ignoring me?"  As in the Bible story, Jesus was not ignoring anyone.  They only judged him to be ignoring them based upon what they were experiencing.  Fear was in control.  Jesus suggests a little faith, or a little more faith, than in his mere existence.  He calms the storm...for the moment.  There will be future storms.  So I learn not to judge what God is up to based upon my fearful look at my life and any one situation.  Fear blinds us.  We cannot see God at work.  A little baby in a stable food bin of some stinky animals is God?  That is a stretch.  Many of us would like God to give us a bit more, or maybe a lot more, certainty about existence, action and presence.  But then we would not need faith.  With faith I will be a bit less frightened the next time I am in a sinking boat experience.