Saturday, September 09, 2006
Got fear?
Today, Amy has felt a little better, but has spent most of the day in bed (watching football of course!) because of soreness and being tired (she didn’t sleep well last night). She has been somewhat hungrier today and as such, ate better. She even got up and fixed some oatmeal for Hope. I busied myself with some home projects: A part on one of our front porch swings broke, so I went to the hardware store but couldn’t find a long enough eye bolt (I will have to custom make them out of hardened steel rod stock). I then repaired the light fixture on our back deck, which had been broken since last fall/winter.
I’ve really been beating myself up lately over my faith and how in the face of seemingly bad news concerning Amy (her CT-Scan last month), I ran to fear instead of my faith. God has been showing me that great acts of faith are seldom born out of calm calculation. While Moses was standing on the banks of the Red Sea with all of the Israelites behind him and the Egyptians were charging down to intercept them, do you think it was logic that caused him to raise his staff and command the sea to part? Do you think Naaman spent hours and hours pouring over tomes, immersing himself in medical research before becoming convinced that he should dip himself in the river seven times? It wasn’t common sense that convinced Paul to abandon all that he was taught and put aside the law in order to embrace grace. And the small group of believers in Jerusalem, who gathered together in a small room to pray for Peter’s release from prison; do you think they were confident? Calm? No…it was a fearful, desperate, band of backed-into-the-corner believers. It was a church with no options…a congregation of have-nots pleading for help! Never were they stronger and never was God more attentive!
What I have learned is that at the beginning of every act of faith, there is often a seed of fear. At that point we have to decide what we’re going to do with it and we really only have two choices…either run away from or run to the source of our faith.
This is Amy's story as seen and told by me – V
I’ve really been beating myself up lately over my faith and how in the face of seemingly bad news concerning Amy (her CT-Scan last month), I ran to fear instead of my faith. God has been showing me that great acts of faith are seldom born out of calm calculation. While Moses was standing on the banks of the Red Sea with all of the Israelites behind him and the Egyptians were charging down to intercept them, do you think it was logic that caused him to raise his staff and command the sea to part? Do you think Naaman spent hours and hours pouring over tomes, immersing himself in medical research before becoming convinced that he should dip himself in the river seven times? It wasn’t common sense that convinced Paul to abandon all that he was taught and put aside the law in order to embrace grace. And the small group of believers in Jerusalem, who gathered together in a small room to pray for Peter’s release from prison; do you think they were confident? Calm? No…it was a fearful, desperate, band of backed-into-the-corner believers. It was a church with no options…a congregation of have-nots pleading for help! Never were they stronger and never was God more attentive!
What I have learned is that at the beginning of every act of faith, there is often a seed of fear. At that point we have to decide what we’re going to do with it and we really only have two choices…either run away from or run to the source of our faith.
This is Amy's story as seen and told by me – V
# posted by Vince @ 6:11 PM 
