A Faith that is Unshaken

    If you grew up as a kid in a christian home like I did you may recall the biblically based silly children’s show, “Veggie Tales”. If so you can probably already hear the haunting lyrics of the catchy yet painful melodies playing in the back of your mind along with the now rather confusing vision of dancing vegetables with faces (I’m sorry I have somehow struck a nerve there). However, these songs do share great messages of faith…at least some of them do. I’m still trying to figure out the water buffalo song and the cheeseburger one. There is one song that I remember well from the show called,”God is Bigger than the boogie man”.

The basic gist of the song is that no matter what scary things frighten us, we can take comfort in knowing that God is bigger. It seems simple doesn’t it? Just sing a song reminding us that God is bigger than anything or anyone that could hurt us and then we will be able to sleep well at night right? But what happens when the real monsters of life arise. When we are betrayed by someone we love. When it seems like all that we amount to is failure. When the debt continues to pile up. When we are diagnosed with a dream or life threatening illness. When a friend is killed by a drunk driver. When hopelessness seeps into the heart and depression becomes a roommate that won’t move out. How are we to remain people of faith in these times? It sounds easy to just say that “God is bigger” but sometimes it proves to be quite hard.

The Joy that Christ breathes into the life of someone that belongs to him is truly a beautiful thing, but I believe that some people wear it better than others. By this I don’t mean that some christians are imparted more joy than others based upon Christ’s favor. What I mean is that some christians, through their closeness with Christ, consider more things to be “pure joy” than others. Everyone knows who these people are in their life. In fact you are probably thinking of someone like this right now. These people seem to radiate joy, bringing light and happiness wherever they go. Nothing can bring them down. The truth is, we all have the potential to live with this kind of Joy. There are two elements that I believe lead to this joyful living; Faith and trust.

The reason I say that this joy is mysterious, is because to the Non-believer it is. Those without Christ in their life may wonder how anyone could be so happy, living in a world in which evil and suffering exist. Committing to a life of service rather than self enthronement, sacrifice rather than self preservation. They lack the faith element; the knowing and believing that God is who he says he is.

 Those that know Christ have experienced this kind of joy before. However, sometimes in the difficult circumstances that life presents they have fallen into doubt, questioning God and his power. These lack the trust element. This is hard for some to understand because they believe that they trust God simply because they have faith in God. However, the two do not equate. The very nature of the word trust is that it is only able to be exhibited whenever pressure is applied. The test of one’s trust in God is not when things are going right, but wrong.

Though faith and trust are two different things, they work together in the life of a Christian. One may possess faith. It is a noun. Where as one performs the action of trusting. It is a verb. An easy way to think about these two elements working together is to imagine the faith and trust of someone bungee jumping at an amusement park. Most of the time the recreational bungee jumper doesn’t personally inspect the line that is in fact keeping him from falling to his death. He has faith that it is capable of holding his weight and is designed to keep him safe. I believe that the bungee jumper exhibits trust whenever his body is after the voluntary jump in mid free fall. The bungee line has not yet saved him, but he believes that it will. It is his action of trust that proves the legitimacy of his faith. In the christian life when our trust acts on our faith, joy is produced despite the circumstances. This can be a great witness to those around us. We show others that our God, who we claim can bring abundant life to the dead, actually does, by trusting him and allowing him to use us.

You may be thinking at this point, “this is good and all, but it is way easier said than done!”. I agree one hundred percent! This is why I would like to leave you with two things that I believe we can hold on to whenever our faith is being tested.

The first thing that we can hold on to is God’s peace. As the scripture says, we are to obtain this peace that only God can offer through prayer. Preacher J. Vernon Mcgee, paraphrased this passage quite simply by saying, “we shouldn’t worry about anything, and we should pray about everything”. It is important to note though that both of these are crucial. For if we try to cure anxiety on our own without bringing our burdens to our Heavenly Father, then we have not approached the one that can give us the peace that we are seeking. And on the other hand, if we bring our burdens to the Father but after laying them at his feet we pick them back up again and continue in our anxiety,  we have rejected the very peace that he offers. But, whenever we seek God and fully submit our burdens to him, he then gives peace that will guard our hearts and minds. Not just any peace though, a divine peace. One that surpasses understanding.

The second thing that we can hold on to is God’s love. Next to strength and the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul prays that the believers he writes to, being grounded in love, would know Christ’s love. If you read from the beginning of the chapter you see that it is the same love that makes the gospel so mysterious because it is one that reaches even to the gentiles! Its an unconditional love. One that surpasses knowledge. I believe that it is the same love described in 1 Corinthians that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”. It is this love that not only binds us to eachother as believers but also to Christ. The love of God is unshakable.

May we find our strength in God alone. In discouraging, and even impossible situations, may He grant us the peace and love to stand firm in Christ’s victory. May we have the faith to know that we belong to Him, and the trust to act on this truth. May our mysterious joy be a witness to others of a God cares for His creation.

Lord, Thank you for being our firm foundation.