Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you start out strong, but as time passes or events occur you feel your strength failing?
This past Saturday I experienced this firsthand with Noele. As many of you heard, we took on an "Almost 30K" in hopes of walking from the State Capitol of Minnesota to the Mall of America. Though we started out a few minutes late (parking issues), we also started out strong! The path wasn't clear at times so we pulled out our GPS and confirmed the route. At another point we had friends meet us past the halfway mark and cheer us on with liquids, buckets of ice and chairs to rest our feet. And still at other points when exhaustion was upon us we were able to find a bench to take a seat and regroup. But then the last stretch came. We excitedly entered the caged walkway and entered onto a sidewalk that journeyed along the highway, getting closer to our destination. At this point, by car, Mall of America was about 4 minutes away, by feet nearly two hours.
This path was unlike any other we had previously taken. The sun was high in the sky, shade was not present, benches for resting were nonexistent, bikes were whirring past us unexpectedly and after many steps, the way in front of us seemed unending! Our feeling of strength, our ways of coping, our plans of finishing became distant. With every passing minute I seemed to become more and more present to the pain in my toes and legs. At this point I questioned if I could even take another step, let alone make it to our destination.
Have you ever been there? Maybe you haven't taken on a unique walking endeavor, but what about in the day to day? Have you ever held out hope for something to change? Or held onto belief that God would show up and after you reached the end of your patience, your resources, your support, maybe even yourself, you wondered if God could even do something!?
I think this gives us a glimpse into the experience of the father from our Discovery Bible Study this past Sunday. In Mark 9:14-29 , we see a parent who has had a child suffering for many years with no change. And as Jesus converses with the father their dialogue is intriguing. I imagine this wasn't the first time the father had sought help for his son. And as he stands before Jesus, I assume he's speaking from experience when he asks Jesus for help and then he ends with, "if you can". So many times he probably sought solutions or answers it to help his son but to no avail. Jesus notices this, and reminds him of who God is and what He can do. Jesus says, "Anything is possible for him who believes."
Faithless versus belief, how do we move from one to the other? In looking further into the Greek we can see that the key ingredient in both of these stances is a four lettered word called TRUST. We all know this word, but do we really know it? To trust someone is to hold a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something (dictionary.com). Where are the places today where God is inviting you to step out in trust that HE is reliable, truthful, able and strong enough? So often we want answers that we can see or understand and often God's response is to lean in and trust Him and to see Him make our paths straight. Let's together seek to move from the stance of "If you can Lord" to declaring the truth "Lord you're able".
When There's Unbelief
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you start out strong, but as time passes or events occur you feel your strength failing?
This past Saturday I experienced this firsthand with Noele. As many of you heard, we took on an "Almost 30K" in hopes of walking from the State Capitol of Minnesota to the Mall of America. Though we started out a few minutes late (parking issues), we also started out strong! The path wasn't clear at times so we pulled out our GPS and confirmed the route. At another point we had friends meet us past the halfway mark and cheer us on with liquids, buckets of ice and chairs to rest our feet. And still at other points when exhaustion was upon us we were able to find a bench to take a seat and regroup. But then the last stretch came. We excitedly entered the caged walkway and entered onto a sidewalk that journeyed along the highway, getting closer to our destination. At this point, by car, Mall of America was about 4 minutes away, by feet nearly two hours.
This path was unlike any other we had previously taken. The sun was high in the sky, shade was not present, benches for resting were nonexistent, bikes were whirring past us unexpectedly and after many steps, the way in front of us seemed unending! Our feeling of strength, our ways of coping, our plans of finishing became distant. With every passing minute I seemed to become more and more present to the pain in my toes and legs. At this point I questioned if I could even take another step, let alone make it to our destination.
Have you ever been there? Maybe you haven't taken on a unique walking endeavor, but what about in the day to day? Have you ever held out hope for something to change? Or held onto belief that God would show up and after you reached the end of your patience, your resources, your support, maybe even yourself, you wondered if God could even do something!?
I think this gives us a glimpse into the experience of the father from our Discovery Bible Study this past Sunday. In Mark 9:14-29 , we see a parent who has had a child suffering for many years with no change. And as Jesus converses with the father their dialogue is intriguing. I imagine this wasn't the first time the father had sought help for his son. And as he stands before Jesus, I assume he's speaking from experience when he asks Jesus for help and then he ends with, "if you can". So many times he probably sought solutions or answers it to help his son but to no avail. Jesus notices this, and reminds him of who God is and what He can do. Jesus says, "Anything is possible for him who believes."
Faithless versus belief, how do we move from one to the other? In looking further into the Greek we can see that the key ingredient in both of these stances is a four lettered word called TRUST. We all know this word, but do we really know it? To trust someone is to hold a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something (dictionary.com). Where are the places today where God is inviting you to step out in trust that HE is reliable, truthful, able and strong enough? So often we want answers that we can see or understand and often God's response is to lean in and trust Him and to see Him make our paths straight. Let's together seek to move from the stance of "If you can Lord" to declaring the truth "Lord you're able".