Tag Archives: faith

Crocheted Cactus

crocheted cactus

I have a crocheted cactus in my office since I am not the best at keeping plants alive. I am so bad, apparently, that I require a fake version of one of the easiest plants to care for! I point this out because we often try to make the care of our “potted plant” of faith as easy as possible.

Is there some way that we can “put it on a shelf” and forget it? That may be our wish. But the reality is that our calling as Christians is to be always involved in the care and nurture of our faith that it might grow and flourish. Faith is never stagnant or immovable or fake. It does not stop growing when we are confirmed or become an adult or a parent or retire. Faith is always something for us to be engaged in and be attentive to. St. Paul tells us why growing in our faith is so important:

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4

A growing faith helps us to grow closer to one another in love, allows us to boldly witness to the world around us about the power of Christ in our lives even in hard times and causes us to draw closer to our Savior in the process—all good things to make us thrive as plantings of the Lord. Grow on, my faithful friends.

Cleaning Out

heart

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Psalm 51:10

I used the week between Christmas and New Year’s to clean out my basement of things I did not need anymore. It seemed like a daunting task at first, but then it got easier as I divided things out into categories of what to recycle, what to trash and what to keep.

What I came to realize was that I was hanging on to far too many things I no longer needed. I was emotionally attached to a great number of items that I needed to disconnect from. Then I discovered I had not even opened some of the boxes that I had moved to my current home 14 years ago, so those boxes could go.

The same “cleaning out” can take place in our hearts as well, through Jesus. We can get rid of lingering thoughts of guilt and shame by going to Jesus for release from them. We can remember the good things of the past and still move on from them. And we can completely discard anything that does not matter to our current situation anymore.

God will help us to see what should remain. The Bible puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 13:13: “These three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Pace Keepers

pace keeper

When I ran a half marathon in 2009, I remember that there were pace runners who were stationed at different points in the mass of participants. Their job was to maintain a certain pace for a particular group of runners who knew in general how fast (or slow) they normally run. My pace runner I watched for was the 13-minute mile runner, for instance. I was not the quickest runner, needless to say. But there were many runners who were pacing along with me and following the 13-minute pace runner as well.

The idea of pace runners and the runners that follow them came to mind for me recently when I was thinking about how each of us moves forward in faith at different rates and no rate is better or worse than another. There is no need to judge where anyone is on their faith journey. Some people like to read large sections of Scripture daily, for example, while others find it more beneficial to their souls to sit with a single verse of Scripture for awhile. Both are good ways to stay in the Word.

So find your pace of faith, look for those who are at your same pace, embrace that pace and keep at it as you “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

Even Now

Mary, Martha and Jesus

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” —John 11:21-22

The two words “even now” were brought to light to me in a recent sermon. They are spoken by Martha in the midst of what must have been one of the most trying times of her life. Her brother whom she loved dearly had died, and Jesus, whom she knew to be the Messiah, had not come in time to help him. But even in the the midst of this upheaval in her life, she was able, in faith, to say that even now she knew Jesus could be anything. And, amazingly, he did. He raised Lazaras!

Fast-forward to today. Even now, in the midst of wars around the world. Even now, with political unrest in our nation. Even now, with mass shootings and violence. Even now, with those we love sick or dying. Even now, with our own physical or mental struggles, we can still say with certainty by faith, to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, “I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” And he will.

Going the Distance

I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day. 2 Timothy 4:7-8

The life of faith in Christ is not for wimps. Even St. Paul as he nears the end of his life looks back and is grateful to God for giving him the endurance through the strength of the Holy Spirit to make it all the way to his last days trusting in Christ as his Savior. There can be so many obstacles that get in our way in our race toward the goal of heaven. Struggles, pain, hardships and just the daily grind of living can wear us down and steer us off the path to the prize that has already been won for us in Jesus.

I recently heard about something called “The Magic Hour” in the Ironman competition. It refers to the last hour when people running the race can still qualify as an Ironman finisher. Those who are not professional athletes per se often end up having to muster every bit of strength they have to make it to the very end, to run the distance before the qualifying clock runs out. Some make it at just the last minute, even crawling to the finish line. Others do not make it in time and are understandably crushed.

The blessing for us as Christians is that our strength comes from above and no matter when our last hour on this earth may be or when the Last Day comes, we don’t need to be afraid or worried that we somehow won’t make it across the finish line to heaven. We who believe will always be qualified to enter paradise because of Christ and the suffering and death he endured on the cross for us that we might be released from all pain and suffering forever. We are victorious in him eternally.

Major Details

car in pool

I am a big Seinfeld fan and have been watching the episodes again on my streaming service. In one of my very favorite scenes, Jerry is asleep in a car with his agent when he wakes up and says, “Is this even a road?” His agent Katie says, “Oh, we lost the road half hour ago.” “Why didn’t you wake me up?” Jerry asks in a panic. “You told me not to bother you with minor details,” Katie responds. To which Jerry exclaims, “No, road is a major detail!” before they crash into a pool.

I relate this scene to you because it reminds us all how important it is to focus on the major details of our faith. If we don’t, we can veer way off course and crash. What are those major details?

• Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose to give us new life.

• We are loved by God and are a part of his family forever through Jesus.

• We are called to love one another as Christ loved us.

• We are to tell the Good News of Jesus to everyone we meet.

If what we are doing is not related to any of these major details, then we do not need to spend too much time worrying about those activities. This is not to say that minor details do not need to get done. Just never let the minor take over the major, and don’t ever ignore the major details.

Your Emmaus Walk

Emmaus walk

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. Luke 24:13-14

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the Walk to Emmaus. In it, we read that two disciples of Jesus are walking back home to Emmaus on the night of the first Easter after a very eventful visit to Jerusalem, to put it mildly. The One they had been following had been arrested, convicted, tortured and killed on the cross. Their hopes were dashed. You could say they were sulking home.

But then the risen Jesus walked with them, but they did not know it was him. He told the entire salvation story to them. Perhaps this gave them a little spring in their step. They invited this “stranger” into their home for a meal to presumably hear more from him. Then Jesus broke the bread for dinner. They knew it was him right then, just as he disappeared from their sight.

The story in many ways is a mirror of our walk of faith. We start our walk wondering what is really going on in this sometimes crazy and confusing world of ours. Then through his Word, Jesus provides us with the meaning of life we so crave, and in the end Jesus dwells with us where we are, and though we cannot see him now, we know he is our crucified and risen Lord and Savior.

It is our turn to go and tell others about our ”Emmaus walk,“ as these disciples did, when they returned to Jerusalem and said to the Eleven: “The Lord has risen indeed!” (Luke 24:34). Our faith walk is the best walk we will ever take.