February 2024
“Living at the corner of incredible faith and undeniable fear.” I heard this statement in a message a few weeks ago, and ever since it pierced my ears I have been meditating on its words. It epitomizes the life of a follower of Jesus as someone learns to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.
What does incredible faith look like? We’ve defined faith before as a complete trust or confidence in something or someone. But what makes it incredible? Some biblical examples which immediately come to mind are Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego as they stepped in the furnace not knowing their future but knowing their God. Noah also comes to mind - being ridiculed for building this massive boat simply because God told him to. Even the story of Jarius as he trusted Jesus could heal his daughter. They’re incredible because they trusted God wholeheartedly despite the potential outcome. For Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, it was a painful death. For Noah, it was lifelong ridicule for him and his family. For Jairus, it meant living life with a daughter-sized hole, in grief the rest of his days. They were confident God would either pull through before the pain, or He would use it to bring others closer to Him. It was a win-potentially-painful-win in their eyes.
Fear of pain is usually what drives people away from doing what they believe God has asked them to do, such as fear of rejection, ridicule, isolation, death, shame on the family, etc. So why does our life have to be at this crossroads of incredible faith and undeniable fear? Why can’t we just have incredible faith and call it good? Incredible faith is not possible without undeniable fear. Trusting in God - whom we cannot audibly hear, see, or touch - over the things of this world is scary. Let’s just call it what it is, instead of coming up with some religious mumbo-gumbo - it's terrifying. It forces us to think about what our goal is when it comes to living a life of incredible faith. Is our goal the praise of other religious people or leaders? Is our goal to do what’s expected of us as Christians - living moral lives, attending church 2-3 times a month, and keeping our faith to ourselves? Or is our goal to testify of what Jesus has done? Our goal should drive our every thought, decision, and action we make.
One woman I think of when it comes to living a life of incredible faith and undeniable fear is Amy Carmichael. Amy lived in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. As a young girl from Ireland, she knew she was called to serve the underprivileged and show them Jesus’ love. This woman, in a time when women typically only served alongside their husbands and not as single women, saved over 1,000 children from the sex trade in India. Despite being bedridden the last twenty years of her life, she served the children wholeheartedly, knowing Jesus could heal the wounds deep inside them no doctor could heal. It must have been so scary - moving overseas, learning a foreign language and way of life, starting from scratch with no support system - but she moved overseas because she knew God was calling her to that kind of ministry. It must have been terrifying as she fought restrictions of her new home country, being threatened by men because of her area of ministry, and being bedridden yet staying committed to serving the greater needs of others around her - but her goal was to testify of the salvation found only in Jesus. She lived, served and breathed her last breath fighting for that goal. It’s a beautiful story - a story of a life lived at the crossroads of incredible faith and undeniable fear.
Amy modeled the incredible faith we reflected on earlier through Jairus the synagogue leader. As Jesus was beginning to turn things upside down when it came to faith, rules, and religion, the leaders were forced to choose a stance: deny this man and call heresy or choose to believe and most likely lose their position of status in their community. Jairus had heard the stories of what Jesus was doing, and in a moment of desperation he chose to believe, taking the risk of losing his job in order to save his daughter's life. Even after receiving word that his daughter had died while they were on their way to the house, Jesus looked Jairus in the eyes and said, “don’t be afraid. Just have faith” (Mark 5:36, NLT). Fear is undeniable for a reason, it’s a natural reaction to scary things. This isn’t the same kind of scary as when you watched Alien as a twelve year old (true story), it’s a “but what if God doesn’t pull through?” scary. When you find yourself there, you have the opportunity to step out in faith, plant your feet at that crossroad, look doubt in the eyes, and say “my goal is to testify.”
So… will it be a comfortable religious journey for you, or will it be a life filled with great faith and a willingness to believe His testimony is worth the risk?