Personal Reflection on Mark 4, 35-41

The passage I have chosen is Mark 4, 35-41 which is all about how Jesus calms the storm
at sea and proved to everyone that Faith is really a powerful thing and that it could even change
anything. I find this passage in the bible remarkable or striking because its message conveyed
something in my life, me having faith and trusting God. I could really relate the message implied
by this passage in my daily life experiences. Before, every time I feel down or whenever the
things I wanted to happen didnt work out the way I planned it, I will always feel irritable and
always blame other people even though they are not responsible for it. But that was before, now I
realized that it is stupid and useless to blame other people especially those who did nothing
wrong against you. Thats when I reminded myself of God that he always has his reasons and
everything that is happening is according to his will. Remember we are the one making our own
choices and decisions. And for every wrong choices we made in our life since we are not perfect
and we do commit mistakes sometimes, we should be responsible and dont take the blame on
other people.

This passage reminds me of something, that God is in control of our life and we should
not question him every time we are facing hardships, problems or difficulties in our life. We
should not doubt and just trust God in everything we do. For God he has his reasons for all the
things happening thats why we are familiar and we sometimes heard the line Everything
happens for a reason. If you had a bad day or your plan did not worked out the way you wanted
it to be just remember that God always has his purpose, maybe it is not really meant for you or it
could be bad for you thats why it turned out that way. Just remember that God always wants
good things for us and possibly he has stored something better for you.

There were those times when my faith and trust in God were tested, but at the end of the
day in him alone, he never lets me down. One experience in high school is since Im from a
science class and a grade conscious student; actually all of us in science class are, every time we
told to present something, we always make sure that our work is always perfect, no flaws or
anything. One time during our culminating for English month celebration our teacher was late in
informing us that there is a contest for Verse Choir and our section is required to join. There is

just only a week for us to prepare for the elimination round. We are all doubtful of ourselves and
already loosing hope. But since we are in the first section, a competitive section, we did our very
best. We prepared everything and fortunately we did well in the elimination and had moved to
the finals. We are doing fine during our practices for but a day before the final round, thats
where all the problems begin. Our costumes were not yet finished and the tailoring is doubtful
that they could finish it on time because of the complicated and detailed design and also another
reason is the rotating brown out. This happened 2 years ago during the dry season and
Malaybalay City together with some provinces and cities in Mindanao are facing rotating
brownout for 3-4 hours a day. The rotating brownout is also one of our problems because during
school days, our free time is not until 6pm, and unfortunately the scheduled rotating brownout
that day is 5pm to 8pm, so basically its dark and I dont know why our school wouldnt bother
to on the generator. A dark practice area, an unfinished costume, lacking members and because
we are not complete we could not practice properly. Almost all of us lose hope that time and one
of us quit, on the day before the finals. It really affected us badly, but we remind ourselves of the
time and effort that will be wasted if we will not continue. My faith in God was tested that time
but I did not give up on him. I was really praying, hoping that we could pass this trial in our life.
On the day of the competition, I did not expect the turning of events. Luckily our costumes were
great and were done just in time. There is no conflict between members and we are able to do a
perfect dress rehearsal before our final presentation. Before presenting we made a small circle
and prayed to God for guidance that our presentation would turn out the way we practiced it to
be. The competition that time was really tight. All the participants in different year levels were
all very good. After all the presentation, the winner is declared immediately. All of us are
praying to win despite of everything that has happened. Fortunately we won! We won against the
first and second years as expected but it surprised us that we won against the fourth year student.
We are jumping out of joy, we are all so happy that time. During the awarding we made a small
circle again and this time thanking God for answering our prayers.

Faith has to do something with loyalty. And because we have faith in God we are also
loyal to him. Being loyal to someone is hard especially when you feel and think he turned you
down. Another incident of mine is a more personal experience. This happened the night before
my graduation day in high school. I did not expect the happenings would turn out that way.

Because of that event in my life, I was crying for straight 3 nights. We were so happy during the
parents tribute, it is an event a day before graduation in which we thank our parents for all the
things they have done for us during our stay in the school. After the Parents tribute we even ate
out as a family. I did not go home early together with them because I still need to do my hair for
the upcoming graduation. I really dont know the exact reason until now why my parents fight
like that that night. I went late maybe around 9pm that night and had noticed that they are not
talking the way they used to talk. And I admit, they were both drunk that night. They already
were throwing insults against each other until the time my mother blow. She cannot hold his
anger anymore. They were both shouting and me and my younger siblings all cried. There is
really chaos in the house. It is not new to us that they would quarrel. Whats new to us is that it
was a very long time ago since they fought like that. My mother even walked out of the house
and shouted she will not be coming back. That was almost midnight and was supposed to sleep
because the baccalaureate mass is 4am early. But I dont feel sleepy that time. I was so sad and
angry and was crying very hard and was already thinking not to attend my graduation anymore
because of the happenings. I was asking God why it is happening to me now. Why cant they
fight tomorrow after my graduation? I was praying to God, still hoping to fix this and be able to
attend my graduation, a once in a lifetime event in my life. I was almost losing hope that time but
as I was about to sleep, I heard a light knock on the door, everyone was asleep except for me and
before I opened it I know already that it is my mother. I was so happy seeing her that I almost
hugged her, but I didnt. I was hurt and still angry at both of them. Upon arriving she said to
prepare my uniform and toga already because we will be leaving early in the morning for the
mass. Only my mother accompanied me in the baccalaureate mass. I was okay with that already.
I was already thanking God; at least my mother is by my side but I was still hoping that my
father will show up, will be able to join and walk with me across the aisle or perhaps even just
see me graduate, her first child graduating and finishing high school. That day even his shadow I
did not see. He did not even congratulate me or talked to me that day, I dont know why. Even
though those things happened I did not blame God for that. I did blame my mother and him at
first but blaming cant do any good. Looking at the bright side being optimistic, at least I was
able to attend my high school graduation. My mother and sister were there to witness. Having
faith in God can really help things work out. It may not turn things the way it used to but at least
it is just enough. You are satisfied and at the same time contented.