A Step of Faith

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   One of my all-time favorite movies is "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." As the film reaches its climax, Indiana must face three tests: "The Breath of God - 'Only the penitent man will pass'"; "The Word of God - 'He who walks in the footsteps of God'"; and "The Path of God - 'Only in a leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth'". This last test provides a good illustration of biblical faith. Faith is not a blind leap into the unknown based on ignorance. Instead, it is a confident risk based on the reliability of what has been revealed previously. It does not create anything, but it reveals what had been their the whole time.

   In a blog post just this past week, entitled "The Danger of 'Realistic' Thinking Without Faith," Thom Rainer writes, "...there is a danger that often goes unnoticed. Realism, when separated from faith, becomes limitation. It begins subtly. A church looks at its attendance and concludes, 'We can't grow much beyond this.' It evaluates its budget and says, 'We can't afford to try that.' It studies its community and assumes, 'Those people probably won't come here.' Each statement sounds reasonable. Each one may even contain a measure of truth. But taken together, they quietly redefine what a church believes is possible. This is where realism can become something else. It can become a ceiling."

   Hebrews 11:1-2 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval." In the rest of the chapter, the writer of Hebrews goes on to describe the acts of men and women from the past who demonstrated acts of faith. The chapter concludes with these words, "All of these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect (vv. 39-40)." 

   I am convinced that an element of the unknown must be present for faith to truly be called faith. Faith requires us to step out into the unknown. Yet we can do this with confidence because we place our trust in the One who is known to us, Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2). There are two questions we must ask ourselves. 1. Are we so realistic that we are simply relying on the things we can see, where realism becomes our ceiling? On the other hand, 2. Are we throwing caution to the wind, foolishly jumping into the unknown like a skydiver without a parachute? In that same article, Thom Rainer states, "Faith does not deny the difficulty of the situation. It simply refuses to let that difficulty have the final word. It acknowledges limitations while still believing that God is not limited. That balance changes everything."