the little green man

What is faith?

Who defines faith?

Are faith and trust the same thing?

I have been thinking about these questions for a long time. 

I have thought about faith more in the last two months than ever before.

People question what faith is, how we show it, why we should have faith in God.

I notice people around me who struggle to put their faith in God because they seem to find him unworthy to take care of their lives.

I also see these same people putting their faith into everyday things because they can see them, touch them, feel them, hear them and possess them.

And I am one of those people.

As I have been crossing many streets, with cars coming from any and all directions, I have realized something.

I put a whole lot of faith in a little green man.

 

No...not this one.

                                                                        This one.

Do you realize how much faith I have to have in a computer that tells me it is safe to step out onto a thoroughfare where tons of hurtling steel  could squash me at any moment? What if the computer failed? What if a human driver wasn't watching and ran a light?

To step out...to have that kind of faith in something man made...is quite amazing.

As I look around me in the city center, I see people constantly taking a leap of faith and stepping out to what could be their end. They have faith that these man made computers are going to tell them when it is safe to journey on. And as I people watch, I am painfully aware that many of these humans do not have faith in God.

What is so hard about it?

If they can risk their life with the faith that the electronic green man ensures their safety, why do they not think God can take care of them?

What do I have faith in on a day to day basis?

I have faith that my car will start...until it doesn't.

I have faith that the computer running the stoplights is working...until it messes up.

I have faith that my lights will come on when I flip the switch...until a bulb goes out.

I have faith that the men will pick up our trash when I leave it by the road...until they skip our house.

I have faith in God...until...

With God, there is no UNTIL... He simply doesn't stop taking care of us. 

Why is it so hard to have faith? God assures us that we will be safe. He tells us in His Word that He will provide. That He will take care.

Is it because we can't see Him?

Is it because we can't actually hear His voice?

or is it because we are afraid that if we took time to stop making excuses and just have faith, our life would be less dramatic and interesting.

Before we moved here, people always asked me...'How can you pick up your entire life and move to another country?'

I wanted to tell them that I was terrified but that I was sure I wanted to be with Jared forever and wherever he went I would go. I wanted to tell them anything that would assure them that I had faith. But I never told them that...'because of my faith in God, I can go. Because of my faith that He will provide for us, He will take care of our families, He will increase any seed that we happen to sow. I have faith not in myself, and not even in Jared but in the One who brought us together. I can go to a new country for the same reason you can wake up every morning...because I have faith in One who is higher than I.'

If you would have told me at the age of 12 that I would live in New Zealand, a kajillion miles away from anything and everything I ever knew. I would have told you to get a check up from the neck up.

I didn't know faith.

I was so wrapped up in friends, family, traditions and expectations that I would have never given up my dream of being with my family to realize the dream of faith that I am living now.

If you would have told me the same thing at 19, I might have considered your words. But I would have demanded that the realization of this dream be in my time and on my schedule.

I didn't know faith.

After selling stuff and moving as far across the Earth as I can, Faith and I are finally getting acquainted.

Faith and I are going to be best friends if it is the last thing I do. God has so intricately woven Himself into my life story and seeing that, how can I not trust Him?

Stop reading this and thank God for all of the ways that He has shown you that you can trust in Him. The really sneaky ones that you never considered. The ways that turned your world upside down and gave you renewed perspective. Thank him for those dreams that you didn't accomplish so that bigger and better dreams could be realized. Simply, thank Him for being a God that we can have faith in. A God that so immensely worthy to be trusted and loved.