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Faith is active and alive. Faith is never just some fuzzy belief about something opaque and indefinite. It has muscle and backbone, and it breathes with the ability to do what it sets out to do.

No one knew this better than Jesus. He lived such a short life, yet he accomplished so very much. Consider the incident we have read about today. He asked his disciples to put out into the lake in a small fishing boat. Jesus had been teaching the crowds and was drained and sleepy, so as the others rowed, he stretched out for a little nap. As he slept a quick storm brewed up on the lake. That set the stage for a great teaching event. The disciples got scared during the storm so they woke Jesus up. Can you imagine that? He was sleeping through a storm!

That in itself was part of what his disciples learned, at least later. There are times to work, but there are times to sit back and not worry so much. It is like a man who once applied for a job on a farm. The farmer asked him what his qualifications were, and the man said, "Well, I can sleep through a storm." The farmer thought that was a strange answer, but he needed a hand, so he hired him. One night a couple of weeks later the farmer woke up and heard the rain pouring down and the wind howling. He got up and went to check on the farm. He found that the barn was closed up tightly and the animals were safe. All the equipment was in the shed where it belonged, and in general, everything was in good shape. It was then that it dawned on the farmer what his hand had meant when he told him he could sleep through a storm. He did his work when he was supposed to do it, and he did it well, and did not need to worry if a storm blew up in the middle of the night.

It was this kind of thing that let Jesus sleep in the boat. But the disciples were not nearly as sure of themselves as he was, so they interrupted the nap and asked this biting question: "Lord, don't you even care if we drown?" As we look back on the story we can tell the answer to that question, but for those men in the boat it was a life or death situation! Jesus' response stilled the storm immediately. "Quiet! Be still!" he said. That literally means, "Be muzzled." Then he turned the question back on the others in the boat: "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? "

What did he mean? Was he asking if they believed in him? Yes, it was that, but it was more than that, too. Jesus wanted to know if their faith was a verb, if it was active and alive. He wanted to know if it was something that would lead to action. Action under pressure can be an act of faith, too.

Jesus is still asking that question of his believers. "Do you believe to the point of acting on your belief?" That is a tough question! What makes it so hard is that so many things seem to get in the way of our belief. We are pulled from every side by someone or something vying for our attention and our time. Our faith is challenged by so many storms, and so many events which seem to remove our will to follow Christ.

We are tempted to blind ourselves to what we know is true. Jesus gives us sight in our faith, and people come along and say things to us like, "Oh, come on now, you don't really believe all that religious stuff, do you?" Or we run into a moral situation in which we know what the right thing is, but we are tempted to look the other way, or to act in a non--Christian way. The choice is often between blinding ourselves or summoning our courage and doing what is right. Across twenty centuries we hear that ancient question echo in our consciences: "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

When we put faith into action changes start to occur, both in our own lives and the lives of others. Think of that. Things can be different! This story of Jesus and his disciples reminds us that faith helps us to do some things that other people do not do. It has always been this way. Wherever the people of God have obeyed him they have been called on to do what seemed strange to others. Think of the strange plan of a campaign recorded in the book of Joshua, chapter 6. The Israelite army was told to march around the city of Jericho six times, and then blow the horns. They were told that the walls would then fall down and they could go in and win their battle. Can't you just see them when they first heard these instructions? They probably looked at each other and said, "This is a strange command." But they did it, and the walls of Jericho fell.

God has always required faith from his people. And faith is a verb. It is action and not just passive belief. What happens to you when you find yourself in one of life's storms? Can you believe that you are not in it alone? And believing it, can you conduct yourself in such a way as to live out your faith?

An old parable tells about a trickster who broke into a store one night. He did not steal anything, but just went around the store rearranging the price tags. The shoppers were shocked the next morning when they found diamonds selling for a few dollars, and costume jewelry priced at thousands.

In a sense, the gospel is like that. It reprices everything. It shows that some of what others consider to be of great value is practically worthless. It also shows that much of what some consider of no value is really a priceless treasure. Your faith is that priceless treasure. It is alive and active. The question is really not only "What do you believe?" but also "What do you live?"

Jesus once took a boat ride with his disciples. At the end of the journey they were not quite the same. They witnessed something rather incredible. Life took on new meaning because of that day. The gospel is wide open for you to believe, and especially for you to live. You will never quite be the same!