Disclaimer; this is not a sermon but an article inspired by an incident that happened lately. Not that my trust or faith can move mountains but I picked my lost item (sim card/line) from a busy road somewhere I did not expect weeks after it had got lost. That to me was an odd event which latter I classified as a miracle. Although I trust God to do wonders as He has always done, the incident got me thinking. Others may call that fate or coincidence but I attributed it to God.
I have been planning to write on faith/trust for quite some time. I did have the skeleton but for some time the flesh was missing until recently. Some incidences that happen in our lives offer an excellent platform to communicate and hear from God. This only happens when we are open in the inside to hearing His somehow faint voice that can be heard by only a few.
I don’t expect it to be easy hearing God’s faint voice when our life is bombarded by all sorts of hustles, struggles, trials, hardships, sounds, voices, sites and echoes. But even in such environments, God still talks to us in various ways when we get out of, beat or grow above our hustles and meditate. This explains why the ancient prophets and gurus would leave the society and exclude themselves in search of the divine voice. It is faint. God does not stand on the tallest building in town and talk loudly to us. He whispers.
Miracles are all over for those who see them. God speaks to us more often than we can imagine. The question is do we understand His language?
I have not been very sure on whether to tackle my article from the faith point of view or the trust perspective. The two have been close to synonyms as far as I am concerned. But then I realize that wisdom demands that we bite what we can chew which means I must narrow down to manageable quantities. I still want to go against the grains and force faith and trust to be twin brothers and for the gender sensitive reader, twin sisters from the same mother. I again want to link them to miracles. One may be asking how Faith, Trust and Miracles are related.
What is faith and what is trust anyway? While in high school, one of my friends would encourage me after sitting a tough exam paper that faith is putting all your eggs (read- answer booklets) in God’s basket and counting the blessings (read A’s) before they hatch (read- before they are marked) The little understanding I had then of the word was that faith implied total surrender of my fate to a powerful being who would make things work out.
I can’t tell if I was wrong in my belief then but I can attest that miracles did happen when the going was tougher than I could manage. I remember relatively “good” grades coming from nowhere. Was that faith moving mountains or was I just being optimistic and hoping for the best which pulled the grades my way? The latter might not be true cause we all hope for the best though not everyone have their hopes actualizing or materialize. I at the same time don’t imply that I am a modern day father of faith. All the same, I strongly believe God sends a miracle once in a while with a precondition that we first trust His ability to pull one from the blues.
Trust on the other hand connotes a transparent communication as a foundation for building relationships. A sense of safety and a comfort is present in the interpersonal interaction. Trust is sufficient in God –Man vertical relationship. Man trusts God to cater for his needs and ensure all is well. Trust means I delegate everything to you because I know you are better placed to handle things my way than another I do not trust.
My next assignment will be to define a miracle. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy defines a miracle (from the Latin mirari, to wonder), an event that is not explicable by natural causes alone. It can also be something beyond the reach of human action and natural causes. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature.
First, we might be forced to examine the ingredients behind the occurrence of a miracle. One of these is the magician or miracle performer. The second component is the recipient or beneficiary of the miracle. Another important thing to note in our analysis is the relationship between the two. You will realize that the two have a vertical relation. This in simple terms is that one is above the other. The magician is considered more powerful and the recipient looks up to him/her for wonders he himself/herself cannot do or perform. Thus their relation is somehow trust oriented. One is powerful and can do what the other cannot. The weaker party surrenders to the one thought to be sturdy.
How does the miracle occur? This is my assumption; In the secular setting, one may be forced to pay for the miracle thus on his part, the magician responds appropriately. On the other hand, God responds to those who trust in his ability to do the unexpected. This in relative terms, prayer, faith and trust acts as the currency for a miracle to come ones way. ie to the believer.
Up to that point, it’s clear beyond doubt that miracles thrive in an environment where trust (read faith/ belief) and ability are present. This is the case both in the secular and religious world. The only difference is the level of trust and the ability of the powerful character to perform wonders.
Biblically speaking the writer of the book of Hebrews dedicates the 11th chapter to covering this topic of FAITH. This shows how important faith is. The chapter celebrates the great men of faith. In the introductory verse, faith is defined as knowing something to be real even if we don’t see it. It is a belief that the world was created by a Supreme omnipotent God and thus hoping for solutions from this powerful being.
These great men mentioned in the chapter did the unexpected. They knew the secret to pleasing God; Faith. Abraham left his home in Haran and headed for the unknown where the Lord was leading him. Even in old age, Abraham believed in God’s promise of a son. Abraham was 100 years while his wife Sarah was 90 years, way past menopause in “civilized” modern man’s terms. I just imagine such a promise in modern times.
Faith means we are ready to trust the unknown future to a known God. It’s like going out on a journey whose destiny is uncertain but the traveler has a strong confidence in the guide, the compass, the atlas and the map. These tools in our journey with God equates faith.
Imagine the extent of trust people have for fellow mortals like magicians, witchdoctors or practicing trained doctors. It best suite me to ask my reader; How powerful is your magician aka miracle worker. What level of trust do you bestow him? What are your reasons for the kind of trust, belief or faith in your miracle worker?
The writer of this article is a Christian but I can’t measure the level of my trust in God. I don’t know for real if God considers me a traveler in the already trodden ways of trust by the greats like Abraham. As much as I claim to be a Christian, I am subject to failure when it comes to trusting God.
Being the critic you are, I am expecting questions such as “Now that life to many is an obvious miracle, does it really require faith or trust in God?” I believe many people regardless of their religious inclination believe in some powerful being beyond them. The names can differ but there could be a similarity in the beliefs narrowing down to the same God. But this is my assumption. That’s one angle of looking at it. The other approach is that God is a just and fair God. Unlike human beings, He wants everyone to have a feel of His powers. Human beings charge for the little wonders they perform some of which are possible via twisted means. But God loves us all and wants us to benefit from His overflowing free grace thus life is given to all. To live is by grace. There is nothing we contribute towards our being alive. Life thus in itself is a free miracle for all.
Life as many will agree has many challenges. It can be a bumpy ride as well as a load. All the same, miracles are expected. We struggle and do everything we can but sometimes things just don’t work out. Especially in modern economic times, depression, stress, despair prompting suicide as the easy escape route is “normal” to many people. But does that mean life has to stop? We don’t stop the hustle just because one door has closed. When you reach the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on there. Note: The event leading to this article happened exactly after all means of trying to get the mobile phone line back had been exhausted. I learnt that God finds us at our points of total surrender. We push on both in actions and in faith which we do knowingly or unknowingly.
One of my all time favourite quotes is that hope is the only common good to all people. We may not be religious parse but still we expect a solution to come by in the long run. Our rewards come when our relation with God entails trust and we have faith in His ability to do the odds. To a religious man, this is a miracle if we were at the end of the rope.
One Congolese gospel musician and pastor gives an illustration in his song of children playing that excites my desire to learn to trust God. One child is thrown up by the others and held before falling. That is an amazing display of trust in each other by children in their play. Parents also throw their children up and hold them as they come down. Have you wondered why the infant smiles even when this can lead to death if the infant drops. Do you think the little one does not fear heights or know the dangers involved? It does know. But it TRUSTS that all will be well since DADDY or MUMMY is in charge.
Trust is that important. With total surrender of our lives, fate, issues, problems, hustles and unknown future to a known God, the unexpected happens. He leads us to greener pastures and cool waters even when our environment is harsher than a desert.
That’s a miracle right there; a product of letting go of the steering wheel, sitting back and taking a chill mode knowing all is well. That is the beauty of TRUSTING GOD.
Thanks Steve. I sure will.
ReplyDelete