- "FAITH: Sees the invisible. Believes the incredible. Receives the impossible"
I tried to find where this definition of faith had come from, but I have come up answerless (google doesn't really know everything.) I had originally read it somewhere and wrote it on an obnoxiously tennis ball yellow post-it sticky note and stuck it on my desk. It's glaring at me, right now, sitting there in between 2 hotel room cards(one from the Holiday Inn in San Jose, Costa Rica, the other from the Ritz Carlton, in Miami). I look at it EVERYDAY, it serves as a reminder that in eighteen short years I have in fact seen what normal defines as impossible. I have watched the incredible happen. So much so that it won't fit in a simply blog post. And to clarify none of it has been any doing of my own skill or awesomeness. People have a hard time wrapping their minds around it...
- "...INCONCEIVABLE!"- Vessini
- "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."- Inigo Montoya (from The Princess Bride, one of my favorite movies.)
Faith is being crazy enough to truly believe that God is who He says He is. "Faith is like jumping off a cliff and being fully convinced that you won't hit the bottom." - that's my personal paraphrase.
Faith never looks at the circumstances. Sometimes (or always...) faith looks a little like insanity, sometimes (or always...)is just doesn't make sense. That's the point! It's not the faith that gets it done; it's the realization that you cannot get it done in and of yourself. Only God can. Faith is relying on the fact that God's strength is going to make up for your weakness.
- "If you want to do great things it's going to take great risks. And great faith."- Pastor Eric Peoples ("Rev")
Yup. There you have it. That, by the way, is a quote from my absolutely phenomenal youth pastor (go to http://www.mergeahead.com/ and check out the podcasts!). A while back my youth group, Merge Ahead, spent 3 months talking about Great Faith; I could do an entire post just what I learned then!
- "...and faith will bring the way to the impossible." - A Little More (on album Collide, by my favorite band Skillet)
The Bible offers lots of examples of faith. Of course there is Hebrews 11, which is sometimes called "The Faith Hall of Fame," but my favorite faith passage comes from the book of Daniel, chapter three. Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (better known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) are facing a death sentence at the edge of a furnace, looking into the flames and telling King Nebuchadnezzar that they aren't going to change their minds about worshiping his idol.
"Your threat means nothing to us. If you throw us into the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you can cook up, O King." -Daniel 3:16-17, the Message
They looked at those flames, thought of their God, and said "BRING IT ON." Story summary: God comes through and they walk out of that furnace whole, and not even smelling smokey. Obviously that does not make sense!
People talk about taking a "leap of faith," but truly faith happens one step at a time. It's not some one time decision, it's a daily choice; are you going to look at those flames of your circumstances, or are you going to trust that God is bigger than those flames?
If you are afraid to take that step, then just do it afraid. I've decided life is too short to sit around doing nothing when all of Heaven has got my back.
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