A lot of people have a habit of sleep walking. If, you’re lucky, in the morning you wonder why your phone is in the fridge or something like that, but for others it is far more dangerous. In Taiwan, we lived in a row house. This is a single building that went the whole length of the street, divided into houses, similar to what you would see in New York or London. The roof had a wall, but was flat so you could walk on it. Some people had potted plants they kept on the roof, some hung laundry.
One year, they decided to turn the roof top into a third floor. And so, the whole street turned into a construction site. They make scaffolding by tying bamboo branches together to form a grid, and then with shorter bamboo sticks, they connected these grids together, and attached a board between them to walk up to the third floor. Not the sturdiest of structures, but Taiwanese people are not very large, so it works for them.
One day our neighbor approached us and asked if we could stop walking on their roof at night. Of course, my mom insisted they were mistaken, she was sleeping at night and never heard anybody on the roof. My dad, who is naturally a night owl, was watching TV late one night when my sister came down the stairs, went out the front door, and up that rickety scaffolding. The neighbors were right, we had a night prowler, and it was my 10-year-old sister, walking in her sleep.
“We walk by faith not by sight”. – 2 Corinthians 5:7
“Faith is things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrew 11:1
Many interpret these verses to mean we should have a blind faith. Step out and just believe the destination will be there when you get to the end of it. But that is not what this verse is talking about. Blind Faith is a cliché used for names of music bands, for book titles, seminars, churches, and even a several television series, one in which a con artist commits heinous crimes, and at the end everyone is shocked to discover who was guilty because they all trusted the antagonist with a “Blind Faith”.
There seems to be scriptural foundation for this term, since “by faith Abraham went” (Hebrews 11:8). God asked Abraham to go, and he didn’t tell him where. He went on the promise that God would provide more information later. Abraham was already an old man, and had a relationship with God which gave him a foundation for his faith. God had proven himself worthy of Abraham’s faith, not to mention He was speaking to Abraham directly. Abraham did have to have faith without seeing a destination but he knew the one asking him to step out in faith.
Many just have a belief in something without the benefit of any of the tools Abraham built his faith on. If you do and you are right, then great, you got lucky. If you are wrong, then you probably should have asked some questions, because it can destroy your faith. Stepping out in faith is not contradictory to being informed. The bible always asks us to have faith built on knowledge. Knowledge builds faith.
When we look at the story of Abraham, we see him stepping out into the wilderness unsure of his destination. It can also be said that Abraham stepped away from a bad situation. We know the place he left was a very ungodly society that probably even influenced his family. Historically, the land of Ur was steeped in idolatry of a particularly grotesque nature. They practiced human sacrifice. https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2020/02/human-sacrifice It wasn’t just a new exciting place God wanted him to travel to, but it was about leaving, which Abraham had knowledge of.
Sometimes we are in a bad situation that we need to escape from. It is scary to step out in faith because we don’t feel like we have a destination. Women can remain in an abusive relationship because they believe there is no place to go. We may remain in a job that is not the best situation.
I am personally going through a ground shaking shift in my life (the reason this topic is on my mind). I am stepping out in faith, not sure of what things are going to look like in a month. I am beginning a new job, and yes, I am reaching into the dark a little bit, hoping that job stability is going to be there. Self-doubt and worry about the impact on my family plague my thoughts. But, I am also reaching out with confidence that what I am doing is the right thing.
It’s a completely new role for me, in a field where I will feel more spiritually involved in the lives of people. I have mentioned Healing Hearts before. It is a local organization that helps people deal with grief after trauma and tragedy. I have confidence that God will establish me in this even though I may not see everything just yet. It will take a lot of work on my part, and it will come with new frustrations (Andrew probably will rescue me from my pool of tears several times), but I am moving forward in Faith.
We all have asked for prayer, from our brothers and sisters in Christ when we go through times like this. Many times, people have asked me to pray for them. Which of course I do, but part of me wonders if God might be allowing that person go through a tough situation, because he wants them to develop their faith.
” For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into ~ waters the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” ~Mark 11:23 God does answer, but he needs you to step out in faith
