Unreasonable Faith

This week, I was challenged by a sermon that asked if we have taken any steps of faith recently. Any steps that are uncomfortable and truly pushing you to “live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5) All week, I’ve been worrying that maybe my steps have been guided my logic, my husband, and financial security instead of God’s Divine Will. My life feels so plain. So regular, that it’s hard to feel like I’m taking steps of faith!

As Shakespeare said, nothing is more ordinary than the desire to be extraordinary. Most tasks feel mundane and unimportant in life, and I am constantly being pulled in two different directions. Wanting to play it safe and be comfortable and wanting to take some huge giant step of faith to prove that I’m genuine. When I mentioned this to my husband, his reaction was disbelief.

“Why do you think everything has to be unreasonable in order to be a step of faith? Faith can be reasonable too. What do you think we are doing, every day?” 

This literally has never occurred to me. I see people (on facebook) going across the ocean on mission trips, making large contributions to great organizations, or selling their possessions to live more simply and I think, OH! THERE is a person living by faith! But, there is more to living by faith than making grand gestures.

I recently stepped out of a ministry that was pretty fun, because I sensed that God wasn’t calling me to it. Reid and I took over leadership of a different ministry completely outside of our comfort zones. I’m homeschooling two kids because God has called me to.

In my own marriage relationship, which is ideally to be a parallel of Christ and the Church, there were grand gestures in the beginning. And those were nice, they let me know that Reid was really serious about me. But what has mattered much more is that every day he has woken up, went to work, paid our bills. He comes home, every evening. Every night, he has laid beside me and put his arm around me. Every morning he has coffee with me and talks about our day ahead. Every child that had to be fed, he… ok. Well he did not do that. But he did encourage me while I fed each of these children! His dreams have become part of my dreams, and mine have become his. There might not be crazy huge gestures often any more, but I have a deep trust in him that if there is a need for a grand gesture, he won’t say no. This is how I know he loves me. The little things, the daily things have become the huge things, they are what prove to me that his love is genuine. 

God doesn’t NEED us to make grand gestures on His behalf. He is completely capable of doing huge things. What He does require is our obedience. In ALL of the things He calls us to. Sometimes, I’m sure those things are huge. But most of the time, I’d hesitantly say 99% of the time, they are the small things. Our attitude towards our spouse and children. Our willingness to learn from others. Our ability to set ourselves aside every morning. To open the bible and seek after God first. To Know His character by learning to love others right in front of us. To be fiscally responsible with the resources that He has given to us. I hate to be cliché, but, these things are NOT the little things. They are the huge things. They are way harder than a mission trip. They are way harder than making a one-time grand gesture. These are the things that God has called us to. That our bodies would be a living sacrifice to Him. Daily, in all of the little things right in front of us.

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”  CS Lewis