Mark Blog 2

I want to start this blog off first by saying that these second blogs on each book of the New Testament (all two of them) are among the most fun assignments that I have ever had to do. Whenever an assignment for a class becomes extremely fun, the product does not look like an assignment anymore. Instead it looks better because the grade is no longer what the student is focusing on. Let this paragraph be a disclaimer for this blog. I am not saying any of this for a grade. I anticipate that this blog will share what I have learned in my New Testament class but there is so much more. For example, the second Matthew blog is something I continue to struggle with. Mark’s second blog will not be an exception. It is more personal than the Matthew 2 blog.
God again reminded me of where I am struggling here at Colorado Christian University. It is not like I forget. No, that is not why God reminds me now. Instead He seems to make sure that I do not forget by reminding me many times a week. This is hard to share in the Internet where anybody could read it. I grew up in a church. I invested time and love into that church. Every Sunday I would be helping out somehow. I would be a greeter, a helper in Sunday School, or the person who changed the overheads during the music (back in the days of manually having to change slides…computers have since taken over that job…it is literally a click now). Yet during those years I felt left out of the Church. Long story short: I got hurt. I left Sunday church and swore that I would never return. One of the groups that I got hurt by most was my peers. Here I am this year living with Christian peers.
God has been amazing, however. The past year has been devoted to God healing the hurts that have been caused. I have discovered how deeply I am able to love my church in Idaho called The Crossing. I miss each member. The fact that I miss them is evidence of healing that God has already done.
But here I am living with peers. For me, they are the hardest group of Christians for me to hang out with. There is so much less privacy here. I do not know how many times I have been reading the Bible and spending time alone with God when somebody interrupts me. Well, my roommate has the right to come into our room. I cannot protest. I cannot move because my room is still the closest place of privacy I get here. I do not expect living here to become easy instantly. In fact, I bet it is going to be difficult for the whole time on Earth. However, there are things God wants to do in my life in the area of being among my peers.
In my New Testament class, we were all asked to look up Mark 4:35-41, where Jesus calms the sea and storm. It was read aloud and we were told to close our eyes and just allow words and phrases from the text to pop out at us. On the first read-through I picked out the phrase “Other boats were with him” (in verse 36). The phrase stuck out for me because there is only one boat in all the pictures I have ever seen about this story of Jesus. However, more than one boat was out on the sea, and that means that many people were afraid that day of perishing than just those in the boat with Jesus. There were other boats that Jesus was not in. How did they feel being stuck in the storm?
I think that stuck out because here at Colorado Christian University, I often feel that I am in one of those other boats. What are the people in the other boats supposed to do when the storm comes? They cannot just wake Jesus up because He is in another boat. Did they feel a little more like outcasts in the sense that God was not physically in their boats?
The second read-through a few more lines popped out at me. “evening”—it was coming to sundown. Dark seems to be emphasized here. Night is coming and storms already indicate a dark environment. Next, “The boat was already being swamped” (in verse 37). The disciples’ feet are wet. The boat(s) are not going to survive at the rate the storm was ravaging. These two ‘new’ passages added to my inventory of where I am spiritually right now. I am still feeling left out a bit here at CCU. I still am having a hard time living with the same type of people who have hurt me. However, one more phrase stuck out.
“Even the wind and the sea obey him” (in verse 41). Even in the spiritual world, the storms obey Jesus. The Church is made up of humans. Humans are not perfect. We all hurt one another. I have been told that so many times. Anytime I share that I had been hurt by a group of believers I am told again (side note: you can tell me that as much as you want, that does not help remove the pain of what happened). God is helping me. I am learning that Jesus is speaking “Peace” and it is my job to respond. I see my response as being able to do what Jesus did in that storm. Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding California, stated in that a person has peace in a storm that they can sleep in.
I believe that my calling on Earth includes keeping an eye out for people who have been hurt by a body of Christians. When I see a person who is hurt by a church, I have an understanding of how that feels. I also know that God is so much bigger than that pain they feel. I desire deeply to help others who are experiencing similar things that I have experienced. I pray that God helps me and gives me His words for those people. I pray that God.
As a Church, I think each of us needs to keep an eye out for those people. We are supposed to be united in such a way that nobody within the body gets hurt. However, we are also not perfect. I am praying hard for us to see when we hurt another human and recognize that God gets hurt when we hurt others.
The Church could learn a lot about discipleship from Mark. The most important thing within that is that we all fall short but God constantly stands by us and helps us. Each time the disciples failed they were forgiven.