I have some of my daily reading in Isaiah and the Gospel of Mark currently. This week I have been comforted and challenged by two passages. Isaiah 10 and 11 calls me to understanding that God has always dealt with the “blowhards” and tyrants of the world. He will continue to do so. The key is to fix your gaze on the one who rises up from obscurity. (A shoot from a stump.)

Then there is Mark 6:45-56.

One episode is Jesus sending the disciples off so he can pray (after they had fed the 5,000) and the disciples encounter the storm.

The next episode is in Gennesaret (a Gentile region) and the oppressed flood to Jesus and he sets them free.

The one episode features the ones closest to Jesus. They had just participated in the great miracle of feeding 5,000. They were with Jesus constantly. But when the storm rages and they see Jesus walking on the water, they are terrified. They had no clue what was happening.

The next episode is a region that wasn’t acceptable to Jews. These were people who didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Jesus. But when they heard he was nearby, they ran to get to him.

I wrote in the margin of my Bible these notes: (The disciples) didn’t know who they had with them! (The Gentile crowd) knew who they had with them!

The Isaiah passage and the Mark passage are significant in my mind this week as I struggle with doom scrolling online. Social media and news. People vomiting out opinions on what is happening in Israel without basis in true biblical or historical understanding yelling at everyone else what their position should be on Israel (whether to agree with everything they do or oppose everything they do).

Then there is the clown car formerly known as the Republican Party that has allowed 10-12 people hijack a democratic institution because of their perceived slights.

There is a lot of noise and chaos in our world.

In these passage I find HOPE. It is the call of God to get my focus back. In Isaiah I am reminded that the Lord has dealt with the violent and the oppressors and the proud before and he will do so again. The Putins and the Trumps of this world will be handled. Hamas will be handled. Idiot politicians will be handled.

My heart needs to settle here: Do I recognize who I have with me?

This is the call out to me this week.