Faith is a word we throw around a lot. But what does it mean when we say “I have faith,” or I’m faithful”? For me the definition of the writer of Hebrews still makes the most sense. “Faith,” s/he says, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is to believe in things we cannot see, faith is believing that an invisible God exists and is ever present in our lives. Some refer to this verse as proof that to have faith in God means to blindly and unconditionally trust in God, to blindly and unconditionally believe in God’s existence, to blindly and unconditionally trust God will rescue and provide for us. Yes and No!

Maybe an illustration from life can help us out. Some of you may already know the story of the French daredevil Charles Blondin who walked across the Niagara Falls. In 1859 Blondin walked along an 1100 foot long tightrope suspended 160 feet above the rushing waters, to become the first person to walk across the Niagara Falls.  25,000 people showed up for his stunt. It was the first of many trips, Blondin repeating it each time with daring theatric variations such as blindfolded, in a sack, pushing a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man (his manager) on his back and even stopping midway to make and eat an omelet.  The story goes that one time, after performing once again some astonishing stunt crossing the Falls, Blondin turned to the crowds and asked them if they remembered reading in the news papers that he had once carried a man across the Falls on his back. “Do you remember reading about that?” “Oh, yes we remember that.” “Do you believe I can do it again?” The crowd roared, “Yes, we believe you can do it again!”  The air was electrified with excitement and anticipation. Then he asked for a volunteer! The silence was just as deafening as the cheers had been moments before.

Blondin asked for one volunteer from the crowd to show faith, to trust that he could once again carry someone safely across. Blondin did not ask of the crowd to throw caution to the wind, to trust on a whim or to blindly trust that he could carry a person across. No, he reminded them that indeed in the past he had done the very same thing. He had a “track record.” You know the saying that past behavior is a good indicator of future behavior. Well, that is sort of what Blondin was trying to communicate: “Do you remember reading about the man I carried across on my back?” “Oh, yes we remember that.” “Do you believe I can do it again?” The crowd roared, “Yes, we believe you can do it again!”

The writer of the book of Hebrews does a similar thing. In the rest of chapter 11 s/he reminds us that our faith is  based on a past track record of God’s actions, and we have the witness of countless believers who came before us who had indeed trusted in and had faith in God, the persons God has “carried over the Falls” long before us. So the writer of Hebrews then goes on to list the names of many of these believers: Noah, Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Jacob, Moses, Rahab, the Judges, David, Samuel; men and women who lived by faith despite never seeing all the promises of God come true in their lifetime. They were the first ones God “carried over the roaring Falls.”

Why then could Blondin not find a volunteer? “Well, it is easy to say I have seen it done, I believe you can do it, but it’s altogether another thing to put my life in your hands and let you actually carry me across.” Because the crowd could see the rushing falls and the danger, nobody could put their faith in the amazing Blondin. The same is true with our journey of life and faith. We believe in God, we have a cloud of witnesses, all the stories of those believers in Scripture, and the countless others since then – yet when we see the “rushing falls and the danger” of our lives in the now, and the uncertainty of the future, we struggle to step forward and say “I trust.”

I would love to hear about the times in your life when, in spite of the fear in the now, in spite of the uncertainty of tomorrow, you were able to step forward and say, “God, I have faith, I believe you can carry me across on the tightrope.”

Faith is trusting that what God has done in the past, God can do again. Faith is looking back on your own life, seeing where God has been present, and trusting that God will once again be present. Even when you can’t see it in the present,

Kobie

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 10:06 pm and is filed under Bread for the Journey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.