Keeping the faith
By Jessica Brodie
I’m guessing there are very few people who will volunteer for hardship, pain, and difficulty just because they can. Most of the time, there’s a good reason why we’d willingly subject ourselves to torment or trouble—maybe there’s some benefit, such as money, on the other side. Maybe it’s our ministry calling, or perhaps our duty, such as soldiers who sign up to fight for their nation.
My husband and I started working out again in earnest recently. We used to do fitness for fun, but between demanding work, a pulled muscle, a major issue with one of our kids, and the pandemic blues, we stopped. And the longer we stopped, the harder it was to start again.
But a few weeks ago, we began waking before dawn to walk a couple of miles and then do weightlifting together. We also started a strict clean-eating regimen.
It’s not that we enjoy waking up insanely early or pushing our muscles so hard it hurts to shampoo my hair or climb stairs the next day, but we do it for a reason—we know if we stick to it, our bodies will be in great shape again, and we’ll look and feel good. That’s what keeps us from hitting the snooze button or binge-eating potato chips. We want to be healthy, and we know a nutritious, lean-minded diet and exercise will make us that way. It’s why we endure the pain or discomfort.
But when we go through other kinds of pain in life, it’s hard to keep that kind of perspective, because we don’t know what’s on the other side.
For instance, when we lose someone we love, the pain of grief can feel overwhelming and endless. We wonder if we’ll ever smile again, and even if we know we’ll see them one day in heaven, perhaps we think we’ll never experience joy again on earth.
Or consider that “wilderness period,” when you go through a season of spiritual darkness, doubt, or difficulty—sometimes it feels like you’ll be in that slump forever, that you’ll never emerge into the light again. It begins to eclipse everything else in your life, and you can’t see past the hardship of today.
I’m sure that’s how the Israelites felt when Moses led them into the desert after their time as slaves in Egypt. They were headed toward this mythical Promised Land, only it took such an incredibly long time to get there that many lost sight of the reward waiting for them. They grumbled, turned away from God, and by the time they got to the Promised Land, some of them decided it was too much of a risk to enter because they were so fearful of the unknowns awaiting them ahead. A great number of them never even got to claim that promise because they lost all hope. The wilderness had consumed them.
Faith can feel like such a risk sometimes. We think we hear God telling us to take that chance, make that move, but we cling to what we can see instead of what we hope for, and we’re paralyzed in this pale-gray middle ground, lukewarm and fading fast.
But faith requires risk. It requires stepping out and trusting God will provide, God has a plan, or God wants us to do something, and even if we can’t see it, we do it anyway.
There’s a passage in Hebrews that talks about the importance of walking in faith. Faith isn’t just believing—it’s believing when you can’t see the outcome.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:1-6 NIV).
The passage goes on to list people from the Bible—from Noah to David to Samuel and the prophets—whose lives exemplified faith, even though they never saw the promise come to fruition in their lifetime. God had something bigger planned for them and for us all, and even though they didn’t ever experience it, they walked in faith anyway.
Inspired by them, the writer of Hebrews encourages us, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
You might not be able to see the whole picture now, or even experience it in your lifetime. But rest assured: if you keep faith and press on, you will.
Thanks to my patron: Matt Brodie