Faith Talk - Faith Walk

“Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. [I Samuel 14.6 excerpt]

I've talked a lot about building faith lately. And, in particular, I have compared building faith to physical workout - it needs to be tried and proven. I need to find how to emulate the words and actions of Jonathan here this morning.

Jonathan threw caution to the wind... Reckless abandon abounded in this story... Jonathan quite literally put it all on the line...

Cliche's... all of them! It seems we read this story over and again and still never fully grasp the protocol demonstrated here for putting our faith to the test.

Jonathan didn't HAVE to go on this suicide mission. But he was evidently discontent with the way things were. Perhaps he only needed an adrenalin rush. Perhaps life as a normal soldier just wasn't exciting or rewarding enough. Regardless of Jonathan's reason, he went totally by faith and against all odds.

Is there a lesson here? I dare say we would highly discourage this kind of foolishness - especially regarding faith. In our day and age, we would more likely try to protect the image of "faith" and avoid circumstances where things could go badly. The last thing the church needs is another embarrassing failure, right?

It seems to me however that faith will never be built with this kind of reasoning. As a matter of fact, our reservation regarding the exercise of faith has resulted in atrophy. And the disturbing thing is that we have made a ridiculous theology that atrophy IS faith. We have usurped the very essence of faith to define it as something that sits back, takes whatever comes along, and seeks the Sunday-school lesson in it... There's a whole lot of faith talk and very little faith walk.

Imagine if Moses had merely sat down by the Red Sea and said, "Well, I guess this is it - God's will is that we suffer this terrible defeat..." Or, imagine if David had said, "That giant has a point, we better just do as he says and let God take care of us in it..."

OK, so who will lead out and try a few things on faith and faith alone? Where do we begin? What situations do we look for?

First, we should look for something impossible, make our faith resolution, and then act upon it. Simple, huh? Yeah, right!

"But," one might argue, "what if I fail?"

I suppose if failure is going to be that hard to "live" with, then, not enough is at stake. If Jonathan failed, he would be dead - plain and simple. There was no concern for the what-ifs. Perhaps that is our greatest shortcoming regarding our own faith - perhaps we simply need to raise the stakes!

Father, I am challenged to my core right now! I've been talking about faith for a long time, but when it comes to launching out on what seems pure foolishness, I find myself reserved...