Feeling Helpless

We have been forced to deal a lot recently with the feeling of helplessness in the little things of life. Things like finding a doctor, paying a simple water bill, or trying to order food at Burger King (Yes they have those here). Because we have no TV and our aquaintances at this point are limited to those we work with who speak English, we have much time to think and talk.

While this feeling is not fun, we have often thought whether it isn't extremely necessary. Only uncomfort often brings about helplessness and as we read Scripture, we constantly see God's desire that we constantly turn helplessly to him.

I just read Matthew 17 and here we find a story where the disciples wonder why they were not able to drive out a demon. Jesus tells them because they did not have enough faith. After hearing this and knowing the great faith and works of the disciples. I have trouble believing that these were men who completely lacked faith. I sometimes wonder in this story if they weren't a little to overconfident in their abilities and then they ran into a roadblock. Maybe they didn't feel helpless enough and their attempts to cast out this demon were done in their strength. They were not done by men who had no faith, but men who at the time had become confident in "their" success and simply forgot that they were merely helpless believers who needed to trust fully in the power of God.

I think we all need to try to feel uncomforatable on a regular basis. Very little has seemed comfortable recently, but maybe that is just the point.