Bold faith-- what the heck does that mean? And do I have what's considered 'bold faith?' The father I read about this morning in Mark is a daddy distraught with his son's seizures who desperately turns to Jesus as a last-resort to heal his son. Except Jesus is out chilling on a mountain with some of his buds and the dad gets the leftover disciples who botch the job and can't heal the son.
Can you imagine what it was like for that dad, when the disciples were repeatedly trying to heal him and nothing was happening? I bet he was ultimately defeated and embarrassed beyond belief. I bet it took a lot of courage to even bring yourself to this man you'd heard about, all the while keeping in the back of your mind the possibility of it not working. And then you looking like a fool in front of your community when nothing happens?
Fortunately Jesus comes back down the mountain in the knick of time, sees the now-arguing crowd (the pharisees decided to get in on the mockery of the disciples) all the while I can imagine the dad just sitting there like a deflated balloon having given up on the idea of there even being a God at all.
He miserably cries to Jesus, "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
Jesus is all like, "IF?! I'm freaking Jesus, dude."
And I love the dad's response. He quick to say, "HECK YES! I believe!!" then he kind of retracts his statement and admits, "Well, help me to overcome my unbelief..."
At this point I'm not really sure where I was going with this, because it started off as an attempt to explore what it means to have a courageous faith but in actually, the distraught daddy understandably had a faith riddled with doubts and questions. I mean, who wouldn't, when you're standing by watching your child suffer his whole life, a human being whom you would gladly trade places with? But also, I think it took courage to even go see Jesus in the first place, having the hope that maybe He could finally be the one who would heal his son for good.
All this to say, I pray that God would give me a faith that is bold and without fear.
It's a beautiful, chilly day outside and it's time to get out of the house. May you explore today your doubts and questions and pursue the meaning of this life and what it means to love our God without holding anything back!
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