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Last week, Rev. Dave Lee reflected on waiting. There are two kinds of waiting. Waiting with preparation and waiting without preparation.
In today’s passage, we see two groups of women. One group waited with preparation and other other waited without preparation.
They all had a lamp and oil in it but the wise women prepared the extra oil just in case the groom’s coming may be delayed. The foolish women did not prepare the extra oil.
At the end, Jesus gave this message.
Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25:13)
It is a little strange because all of them fell asleep. Both the wise and the foolish. But Jesus said “keep awake.”
Keeping awake does not mean literally not to sleep. Keeping awake is living your life prepared.
Do not live day by day like you are sleeping with no idea of what is coming. Prepare yourself and plan your life. Be ready.
You know what Dalai Lama said:
A tree with strong roots can withstand the most violent storm, but the tree can’t grow roots just as the storm appears on the horizon.
It takes time for the roots to grow strong.
Life is not always easy and smooth. There is no guarantee that there will be no storm in your life.
Often these storms come without warning. They come not in our convenient time. They just come as they like without considering our situations.
We can try our best to prevent disasters as much as possible. But there is only so much we can do to prevent these storms from coming.
I heard a horrible news that happened in Bridle Path neighbourhood. 4 people were attacked by three gunmen in the middle of the night. The father and two daughters in their 20s were shot and they were all beaten up with a hammer.
Horrible! How scared they must have been. They will have to live with trauma all their lives. Very sad!
Life is not in our control. Life is unpredictable. So many things happen to you and they can throw you off.
There was a person who shared his experience about a job interview. He prepared a job interview and his interview went well he thought. He was confident that he will get a job. So confident that he even planned for the next step. But he received a rejection mail. He was devastated.
I remember a family in my congregation who had the son arrested. They were at home at night and there was a knock at the door. The police came and handcuffed the son and took him. The mother was totally devastated.
Life does not turn out as you expect. Life often throws at you curve balls. You cannot prepare for every possible scenario that may happen to you.
But my friends, you may not be able to prepare for every situation, but you can prepare YOURSELF. You cannot control what’s coming at you but you can do something about yourself. That was what the wise women did. They prepared the extra oil.
I was thinking about how I can prepare myself? I think the best way is to cultivate faith that can endure the worst circumstances.
Prepare faith that gives you strength in difficult times. Prepare faith that shows you the way when you don’t know where to go. Prepare faith that keeps your hope alive.
Do you have enough faith so that you can handle the storms that come to you? Do you believe God’s strong hand will save you from troubles?
Do you believe in Jesus who said,
In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world! (John 16:33)
Problems will bring stress into our lives. Faith does not necessarily remove that stress.
But faith gives us the strength to endure what we cannot control. It keeps us from being completely overwhelmed by our circumstances.
When you have faith, you will not be shaken. You will not lose yourself. You will not give up.
Life of Israelites in the wilderness was the test of their faith. God was training them to have faith in God.
They experienced all kinds of unexpected problems in the wilderness. These problems were life-threatening experiences. Lack of water, lack of food, bitten by poisonous snakes.
Every time they faced problems, they were stressed and complained. Because they were scared. They didn’t have faith in God who provides.
Hoping against hope, Abraham believed. But his descendants could not do that.
Your faith will determine your destiny when the storms hit you. There are people who are totally ruined. But there are also people who come out of the storms stronger.
When your waiting is waiting with faith, your waiting will not be in vain. It will become a creative space where God does his wonderful works.
The power of faith is not the willpower. Don’t get confused. It’s very different.
The power of faith kicks in when your willpower runs out. It is what has been cultivated deep within us.
When you cannot do anything, faith can do something. We may still be afraid. We may still struggle. But faith will be still alive. I have seen many resilient people. I saw them overcome their challenges with faith.
Ultimately this story is about the second coming of Jesus. We believe in Jesus’ second coming. I hope that our faith is ready to receive Jesus when he comes back.
Faith is not something you can give to somebody else. In today’s parable, the wise bridesmaids could not give their oil to the foolish bridesmaids. At first, this may sound selfish. Why couldn’t they share?
But Jesus is teaching us something very important. There are things in life that others cannot prepare for us. No matter how much you love them, you cannot suffer their suffering and their illness. Awakening – you cannot give to others. The moment of death – you have to take it on your own.
Faith is one of them.
Others may pray for you. Others may encourage you. Others may teach you about God.
But ultimately, you must develop your own relationship with God. You must learn to trust God for yourself. And that takes time.
Faith grows as you pray, as you listen to God’s Word, as you struggle with your doubts, and as you learn to surrender yourself to God. You may not even realize that your faith is growing.
But when the storms come, you will see that the power arises from within. You realize that God has been preparing you all along. You will discover strength that you did not know you had. That strength does not come from your willpower. It comes from God, who has been working within you.
My friends, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. We cannot control everything that happens to us. But we know who holds our tomorrow.
The one who said, “Take courage; I have conquered the world.” – he holds our tomorrow.
That is our hope.
And ultimately, we are waiting for Christ to come again. We do not know the day or the hour. The most important preparation for the future is not knowing what will happen but having faith in God.
So cultivate your faith. Cherish your faith. Live each day trusting in God.
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