A Year of Faith

So I figure I've waited about as long as I can into 2014 and still make a "New Year" post.  I've been procrastinating.  Not because I haven't known what to write or that I'm putting off the work; it is just that I'm not a huge fan of what I'm about to write.  As I've prayed through this season, the one thing that keeps coming up again and again is the theme of faith. As I've written about before, faith is one of those things that I try not to ask God for.  It always seems like He is more than willing to help out with that one and more often than not, you're left wearing a barrel held up by suspenders and living on the street.  No offense to Job but it has just never been an exciting prospect to me.

But over the last few months I've spent time camping out in Hebrews 11.  Reading through that chapter and also reading through some of the backstories about the people mentioned in that chapter.  All of them had their barrel and suspenders moments.  But at the end of the day, they all had amazing stories where they were used by God.  And stories without tension and struggle aren't really stories at all.  We have to come to trust that the Author knows what he is doing.  Isn't that the crux of Christianity?  In the words of N.D. Wilson, we can realize that we're in a Shakespearean play and we can trust Shakespeare.

So after three weeks of wrestling through the theme of this new year, I'm not as daunted by saying that this year will be characterized by faith.

Faith to pickup and move overseas.  Faith to trust that financial support will all fall into place.  Faith that coffee will grow up from the ground, and faith that we can learn a language and minister to those who have never heard the Gospel.

So bring on the barrel and suspenders.