The Wilderness Way #25

By Bishop Mike Lowry ©

WW 25 brings to a close a five (really 6) Wilderness Way articles on key elements to faith-walking in the wilderness of our time. We must journey with tough trust in divine leading. This sounds easy, but is not!

Hopefully you remember the marvelous definition of faith offered in Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Eugene Peterson’s rending in The Message translation of the Bible drives the meaning home to our modern ears. “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in god, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.” (Hebrews 11:1, The Message) The beauty of this verse is stuck in the swamp of our desire to remain in control. It defeats our grim ascent of the summit of living.

Post Renaissance Christianity commonly confuses faith with propositional belief. It is as if we operate with a hidden equation: Faith = intellectual belief. Certainly intellectual belief is a part of faith. Additionally one must hasten to add that the term belief involves far more than merely intellectual ascent.

And yet here remains the crux of the issue. Faith, genuine biblical faith means trust and obedience over, above and beyond our own ability and confidence. It involves a radical letting go. The biblical equation for faith is more like: Faith = Trust + Obedience. The old hymn has it right. “Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”

Genuine faith exists on the ragged edge of life beyond the exhaustion of our best efforts and most noble aspirations. It is there in the wilderness of living that we must trust in the miraculous leading of God. The Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard put it this way. “Faith means the betting of one’s life upon the God in Jesus Christ…. the giving or commitment of one’s whole life.”

In his provocative book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Jim Cymbala writes: “In today’s church, we have a serious shortage of faith in a living, speaking God. Pastors and laity alike do not seem to believe that God really leads and directs. Research by George Barna shows that fewer than 10 percent of churchgoing Christians make important life decisions based on God’s Word and seeking His will! In other words, more than 90 percent decide on the basis of their own intelligence, peer opinion, whim, or fancy. They marry people and move to new cities without so much as a ten minute prayer. Yet every Sunday they sit in church pews singing songs like “Where he leads me, I will follow.”

Ouch! My sin is ever before me. I think faith as tough trust in divine leading means being willing to go on the wildness way as God fashions a new church I can hardly imagine. It scares me. It calls me to sacrifice and faith (trust and obedience) when my comfort level is challenged and stretched. It takes me into risk-taking mission and courageous witness.

There is a little story in Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul that offers a symbol for tough trust in divine leading. “The fields were parched and brown from lack of rain, and the crops lay wilting from thirst. People were anxious and irritable as they searched the sky for any sign of relief. Days turned into arid weeks. No rain came.

The ministers of the local churches called for an hour of prayer on the town square the following Saturday. They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration.

At high noon on the appointed Saturday the townspeople turned out en masse, filling the square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts. The ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands – holy books, crosses, rosaries.

When the hour ended, as if on magical command, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise. From the middle of the crowd one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others: A small nine-year-old child had brought an umbrella.”

God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is leading us on the wilderness way. We are called to trust the Lord’s divine leading. As hard as this may be for us, this is a good thing.

By: Bishop Mike Lowry On 11/12/2009

Topics: Bishop Columns