By Stu Schaefer
How do you describe Faith? How do you experience it? For me, it has been a journey and a process, that is still ongoing. It began with a very small nudge that I could have ignored or doubted. Yet as I followed and kept learning to sit, wait, listen, and then follow… that little faith has grown into a burning desire to do what God asks of me. To share Him with others. To do things mostly unnoticed that glorify Him, and to be ever ready to say . . . “Yes Lord!”, while rising to act.
Have you ever been asked to fall backwards and let someone or a group of someone’s catch you? It is an interesting experience. As a young boy, my Marine Corps Sergeant father had me and my brother stiffen up like boards and fall backwards and then he said he would catch us.
If you have ever done this, then you probably know that it is inherently difficult to do. At first, there is the little leaning back, and right at the tipping point, poof, dad was there. Ok, great. However, that is not where things stop.
Now you are asked to fall back further, so you say ok, and then on the way down, just as you pass that “tipping point” . . . you bend and catch yourself, because you know that otherwise you are going to suffer pain when your back or head hit the ground.
But then, your father catches you by your arms and you don’t even fall. He sets you back up and asks you to try again, and reassures you that he will catch you. You get ready, you stiffen up, and then you turn your head real quick to see that he is there. He smiles and says “Come on” . . . so you turn back, close your eyes and start to fall . . . only to buckle again, and try to catch yourself.
Several times this repeats as you let yourself fall ever so slightly more, then buckle to try to catch yourself. Yet each time, your father catches you and sets you back up, asking you to try again.
Finally, you say “OK, I’ll do it!” You close your eyes, stiffen like a board and almost throw yourself backwards with force - waiting for the floor to smack you and yet hoping that your father will catch you. You feel yourself falling WAY past the point of no return. Now you know when you hit the ground you might just crack your skull open, you are falling with such speed and no brakes. You tense up even more, waiting for the impact and then . . .
2 inches from the ground, your father catches you! And because you trusted him, and because you stayed stiff like he told you to, you don’t even touch the ground. The only thing on the ground are the backs of your heels. Your father has caught you and lifts you up so you can stand upright.
That was the memory God brought to mind when He first connected with me (that I knew of) and then these words flashed thru my mind . . . "That’s what it’s like . . . just lean back and let Me catch you, a little at a time."
That was the beginning of what I call “the grand adventure” of following God. He is looking for folks that will do just that . . . Follow Him . . . with Faith, Hope and Action.
Have you contemplated what fear does versus courage? Over and over, in the Old and New Testaments, we are told to be courageous. We are even told we are given a Spirit of Love, Power, and a Sound Mind and NOT a spirit of fear.
With God’s Word as our guide, the question I want to ask you is . . . Do you believe that God has said these things and that He means what he says?
The kind of belief I am talking about is the kind that changes how you act and behave. I am not talking about a head nod toward God signifying you agree. I am talking about a walk and talk that makes our life a living example of being a “little Christ” as the New Testament believers were.
- Do the people around you know more about God and what it means to follow Him by what they see you do and say (or not do and not say)?
- Is there more to your journey with Christ than once or twice showing up in a building with other like-minded folks?
- Do you feel God pulling at you, saying He has more for you?
- Have you dared to look up and say “Yes Lord” before you even know what you are agreeing to?
Consider what God did with and to the new believers after he ascended into the clouds after His resurrection.
- How did their lives change?
- How is that different today?
- Is it different today?
What do you see in the pages of God’s Word that make you wonder what God really wants to do with you? Especially if you were to surrender everything to Him and take Him at His Word?
Can you dare to fall into God’s leading and trust Him with the outcome?