Hope

Uncertain Steps


There is an image that I think of when life gets challenging. It’s a memory from several years ago. At the time, I was running, A LOT. And there wasn’t much that could prevent me from going on my Saturday morning run. One day, the sky was cloudy, it had been raining, but I thought the worse had past. It hadn’t. While on the run, there were moments where as the rain beat down upon my cap, I couldn’t see what was up ahead. All I could do was stay focused on where my foot was going next and, with faith, take that step. I know the final destination was my warm, dry apartment and I just had to keep going until I could get there.

It was a great lesson on several levels. First, check the forecast before you go for a run. (Something I still don’t do.) Secondly, it is a touchstone moment that I look back on in my life. Just like that stormy jog, there are days and weeks where the rain seems to be pouring down. Where I am going to go and how life is going to turn out seems very uncertain. The streets are slippery and one false move could mean a lot of pain. However, in the midst of those tentative times, I know that all I need to do is watch where my foot will land next. I don’t need to see the whole journey, I must faithfully follow the Way, until I reach my Heavenly home. My steps are uncertain, but my destination is not.

I Corinthians 9 compares our time here on Earth to a race. We are to train and prepare so that we might receive our Heavenly reward. In my mind’s eye whenever I think of this passage I focus on the victorious athlete crossing the finish line. What I don’t see is all the practice in the rain that got him there. May I take comfort in the times of uncertain steps, knowing that the prize for which I train will make every moment in the rain worth it.

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Hope

Not Yet Known


Throughout my life I’ve become notorious in my family for losing cameras. I’m not sure what it was, but for some reason, I never could seem to keep a camera in my possession for very long. It was an expensive, as well as annoying, predilection. Yet despite the angst it caused me, there was little doubt that at some time in the future a new camera would once again become an unintentional donation to another person. It seems as if the lesson was just never learned.

Sometimes our relationship with God can feel like that. We walk with Him, we talk with Him, and we think we have this whole Christianity thing down. Then something happens; usually something unforeseen and something that prompts conviction, and we realize that our well-maintained religious facade is masking our heat’s need of some serious restoration from our Lord and Savior.

The good thing is that we’re not the only ones who have experienced this. In B.B. Warfield’s book “Faith & Life” (which I am reading based on a recommendation from a trusted friend) he opens with a recount of the life of Elijah. Elijah was a man who had a specific task grated to him by God, and who’s character was uniquely suited for accomplishment of this task. A man of strong moral conviction, Elijah was to warn the Israelites about the consequences of their sin. Despite the fact that here was a man who was literally on a mission from God, on numerous times he had to face the fact that he did not fully understand Him. As Warfield demonstrates, among Elijah’s hard-learned lessons was trusting in God’s provisions, being charitable towards others’ sufferings and more. Elijah was a man who heard directly and audibly from God and yet for him, there was always a part that remained unknown.

So it is with us. Despite our deepening understanding of God, there will always be new lessons for us to learn. While daunting, this is also a beautiful reminder that He is altogether different from us. And its His difference that allow us to trust Him and rely on His unwavering faithfulness. Unlike my propensity for losing cameras, God never loses us. So even when we feel like we know nothing at all, we can know that. And when we don’t understand what’s happening in our life, we can take comfort in the fact that for us, as was with Elijah, He is fully, not yet known.

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