It has not always been easy to live by faith. In fact thinking about it, I cannot recall a time where it has consistently been easy living by faith.
What I can say is that despite my capacity to forget things, and sometimes take God for granted, He provides opportunities to be reminded about what it is to live by faith, and why it’s so important.
Take for example something that happened to me recently.
I deliver training courses to people who have been out of work for a while. In some cases the individuals have been out of work for years. Some of them have little experience and believe they have nothing to offer in terms of skills abilities and qualities. While they do not see that about themselves, they certainly see enough about themselves to spend their lives on drinking, online gaming, chat about rubbish and wishful thinking about illicit affairs. To a large degree they are blind about the world and the opportunities in it. They are blind to what God has created them for.
It reminds me of the episode of the blind man in John 9 wherein we see at the start the disciples enquire of Jesus who was to blame for the man’s blindness from birth. When Jesus actually refutes the ‘blame game’ He starts the chain of events that doesn’t just open the man’s eyes physically, but also opens His eyes to the chance to see Himself as Jesus sees Him, and thus follow Him.
It would be easy for me, then, to see those in the sessions I deliver as people with little chance of making any progress, and continuing the pattern of blindness that has become the norm. By faith, I’m catching up with God to see these one-time engagements with these people as a chance for them to see – truly see – that there is more to life than the pursuit of material and emotional satisfaction. There’s even more to life than getting a job and getting money.
That viewpoint doesn’t convince people all the time. Often they engage in the sessions and enjoy the banter set to revert to type as soon as its over. There are glimpses, though, wonderful, beautiful glimpses where some people who have never seen themselves as having worth in Christ, slowly begin to get it. Not all of it. Not the full gospel understanding, but a growing appreciation of the grace that says they are capable of good, they are capable of something worthy in their human interactions. It’s a lot more than their perspective previously allowed, and because there is the liberty to experience this, their lives are so much better.
Walking to what you see by faith is the exciting journey of seeing the world from a Kingdom perspective. Seeing Jesus engaging with the hungry, thirsty, broken, disengaged, hopeless and helpless. Seeing Jesus engaging with the Unlikely Lads and making them His witnesses to all the world. Seeing Jesus doing all this and recognising that as the Father sent Him, so He sends us to engage in the same thing. For His great name’s sake.
It’s not always easy to live by faith – but it’s certainly worth it.
Life With CD 