The conversation began around 11:30pm.
And it ended around 4:15am.

I was sharing with my wife the other night how for the past few weeks, something rather unusual has been going on inside me. While I could not adequately describe to her what it was, I told her that it felt like it was a combination of extreme restlessness and interestingly enough, a sense of peace.

And then, after hours of emotional rambling, I said these words to my wife:

“I feel like I have gone as far as I can possibly go…WITHOUT FAITH.”

I sincerely believe that where many of us are in life today is not actually a testament of our faith in God, but rather a testament of our individual skills and talents. And there (for many of us) lies the problem.

As believers, we tend to exercise our faith only in areas that we have seen God move before.
But when it comes to the unknown, our faith remains still.

Which as Hebrews 11:6 indicates, is not faith at all.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Sometimes I wonder if we find more security in knowing who we are or have been in times past, than we do in believing who God is. As we enter this final stretch of the year, many of us have come to the end of some rather long roads in our lives that now require faith to move forward.

As we examine our hearts and lives today, many of us must come to the realization that the skills and talents we so heavily relied on in the past can no longer move us forward.

Neither can the resumes (and perhaps associations) we worked so hard to build.

What lies before many of us now is a faith in what seems to be impossible.
A faith that fosters a sense of restlessness, yet at the same time, a sense of peace.

May you and I lean hard into that peace today.

Milan Ford has been a leader (and survivor) of ministry within the local church for most of his life. A lover of Red Vines Licorice and all things pointing North, Milan is scheduled to release his first book, 83 Things I Wish The Black Church Would Stop Doing, later this fall (2009). You can find Milan rambling and writing at at ThePewView.com.

© Milan Ford all rights reserved.