I invite you to read the Gospel of Mark 4:35-41 (NAB):

On that day, as evening drew on, he said to them, “Let us cross to the other side.”The wind ceased and there was great calm.They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

In order to do this voyage we need the Bible, because the Word of God is our compass. We are before our biblical passage that shows Jesus making an invitation to the disciples. “We are going to the other shore?” Imagine, after a day of work, receiving this invitation from Jesus to walk with Him. He asks you: “Being with the Lord, in the company of  Him, can some thing be wrong?”

Can someone who walks with Jesus experience something wrong? Can something difficult happen? We need to change this infantile mentality that whomever is in the company of the Lord does not have problems. But it is clear that things can go wrong when we are with Him. “There came a strong wind so strong…” Even being with Jesus came a strong wind says the Gospel.

How many times in  our life, we that walk with Jesus have our boat tossed around! We believe that because we are  with Jesus, nothing bad can happen to us.  You can think “Ah, but I pay my tithe, I go to Mass each Sunday, I am even a supporter of Canção Nova… nothing bad will happen to me.” What we need to understand is that he tribulations are not going to disappear, we need to learn to deal with them.

Whomever thinks that, being with Jesus, will have his problems resolved, things wrong!

Walking with Jesus demands a disposition of learning to confront problems. The heart of whomever finds that it is enough to be at His side to have problems resolved is bearing the fruit of a person that does not know how to confront problems.

What knocks our a Christian in the fight with tribulation is when he gives up. We need to prepare our souls for tribulation, for we are spiritually illiterate in this.There exists a road for this and I want in the weekend to tread this road with you.

See now Sirach 2, 1-6: (NAB)

“My child, when you come to serve the Lord,

prepare yourself for trials.

Be sincere of heart and steadfast,

and do not be impetuous in time of adversity.

Cling to him, do not leave him,

that you may prosper in your last days.

Accept whatever happens to you;

in periods of humiliation be patient.

For in fire gold is tested,

and the chosen, in the crucible of humiliation.

Trust in God, and he will help you;

make your ways straight and hope in him.”

Fr. Fabricio Andrade

translated from Portuguese