Experiencing God - Perfect love of Christ 155

When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
Gospel of Matthew

This particular Gospel reading always reminds me of the story about John Newton, a captain of a slave ship.  The year was 1749, and Newton was returning home to England with his human cargo when his ship ran into a severe storm at sea.  John Newton was not only fearful of losing his ship, the lives of the slaves on board, but his own life as well as his ailing ship began to fill with water.  So he did something that he was not accustomed too.  He prayed for help. 

The storm did eventually subside, and all were safe, but Newton, so moved by the event, experienced a radical conversion to Christianity.  He later became an Anglican Priest and became instrumental in the work of abolishing slavery in England.  Newton is more noted today for the song that he wrote after the eventful voyage in the storm:

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see."

I've recently received an e-mail with a You Tube video about prayer that said: "Even people who say that don't believe in God often pray during a time of crisis.  Why is this?  The answer is that when the events of our lives become such that we no longer have control over their outcome, there is a natural tendency to turn to God in prayer in order to have our hopes restored. 

What we need to learn from this is that God is always there waiting to connect with us whether we are experiencing a crisis or not.  When we realize this, then God becomes an everyday part of our lives, sharing with us, intimately and personally, each event as it unfolds.  We discover God in all things. We are no longer driven by fear, but by the love and hope that comes from knowing God personally. 

In John's first letter, we read:  "In love, there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love."  That perfect love is given to us as a free gift by Christ as we place the events of our lives in His hands. 

To the frightened disciples in the boat on the stormy sea, Jesus says:  "Courage!  It is I.  Do not be afraid.  I am with you always."  When the events of our own life get to the point where they seem no longer in control, as Christians of faith we can turn to Christ and hear these same words expressed to us:  "Courage!  It is I.  Do not be afraid.  I am always with you."

So we build out lives on the strong foundation of Christ, and not on the fleeting and passing events of life with all of there ups and downs.

The first three of the five building blocks of the New Evangelization process are based on this foundation established in Christ:  1.  We are disciples of Christ.  2.  We give witness to Christ to others.  3.  We personally encounter Christ in the day to day events of our lives.  Let us pray that our discipleship, our witnessing and our encounters with Christ be a source of hope to those who may have lost hope.