Why Have Faith?

 

As I rode in the ambulance the other day, I prayed, and my blood pressure rose in anxiety.  A small incident led me to check with Urgent Care, where an EKG reading was pronounced “most unusual”, and the techs there insisted I ride in an ambulance to the hospital ER.  NOW!

The ambulance EMT began to calm my fears during the ride, saying my EKG reading was not really that bad, “it may even be your norm, just a little different than average.”  After 4 hours of tests in the ER, he was exactly right, as the ER found a similar EKG readout which I had done in 2008.  This is my norm.  They’ll still run some more tests, but I did not have a heart attack, nor based on strong genetics, they told me, was I likely to have one (dad and his brothers all lived into their 90’s as did mom, and my cholesterol is very much on the good side).  They told me I needn’t have worried as much as I did.  

I didn’t have enough faith.

I think this was a lesson for me, personally.  Even if this were my last hour, there in the ER, even then I needed to have faith.  He said He goes to prepare a place for us, for us to be with Him for all eternity.  Death is not the worst; I/we need to have faith.

When things seem to be going bad (and every strain of Covid is worse), it’s hard to have faith, to trust.  We forget the parable of the Prodigal Son, who totally had no faith in his father and went off to do things his way.  But when disaster struck (as it inevitably does when we think we can go it alone), he turned back to his father in weak faith --- ‘maybe he’ll take me back”.  But he needn’t have worried.  He needed stronger faith, as his father was waiting, loving, and merciful.  He was always waiting there. 

Remember all the lepers Jesus healed.  They came to Him, and He healed them.  But, Jesus didn’t wander all around Jerusalem looking to find and heal all lepers.  If He wished, He didn’t have to even go to them, He could have healed them where they were (as He can heal us), but He didn’t.  He healed the ones who came to Him in faith. We need to remember that. We need to have faith, especially in difficult times.

I will be with you always, Jesus said.  We need to have faith in this promise, especially in the bad times.  He is always there, waiting with open loving arms, like the Prodigal Son’s father.  He is there for all eternity.

The priest this morning suggested we pray in silence for at least 10 or 15 minutes each day, to hear and feel God’s love, and feel how far we are from him.  The Gospel today had Jesus casting out a demon from a man; it was a spiritual healing versus the many physical healings Jesus performed.  It was a reminder to me personally that we need spiritual healings more than the physical healings done in any ER.  We need to not fear death.  We pray “Deliver us from evil”.  We need to trust that He answers that prayer, always. 

We are not alone in our trials, nor will we be in our everlasting joy.

We need to have faith.