Not long ago, I was a recent college graduate without ties to much of anything. I could go where I wanted to go, work where I wanted to work and ultimately, let my narrative feel out of my control and in the control of my Creator. It was a season, a special season.
Now, I have been out of college for nearly a decade, and I have several ties . I have roots, a steady job and a wife I love. My narrative has changed, and it has turned into something I feel like I have to control. It’s a new season, a special one.
But I have landed on a key difference in where I’m at spiritually. What once felt like God’s control now often feels like my control.
The other day, I was listening to a podcast on Faith and Trust. It was an episode relating to much of how i’ve been feeling, about how we should live out our narrative in a way that requires Faith to see the Spirit of God meet us where we are uncertain, ultimately to provide for us in ways that are beyond ourselves.
The host of the show shared that, ”Faith is the breaking of our Spiritual paths,” and he also shared the ancient story of a man named Abraham from the first book of the Bible, Genesis.
Part of Abraham’s story is God asking him to climb a mountain to sacrifice his own son. It’s a story that’s often followed with the reasonable question of, “Why would a loving God ask a man to kill his own son?”
But as the story goes, Abraham does climb the mountain, and before he can make his ultimate sacrifice, God shows up and provides a ram in place of Abraham’s son.
There are a lot of details and questions to ask and address in that narrative, but what the host of the podcast keyed in on was Faith and where we are led by it.
There are ways we learn to follow God and have Faith. Good things, comfortable things and things that make our spiritual routine what it is. The things we are used to. But Faith is the one thing that pulls us out of those comfortable things and out of our routines, and I believe the reason the Faith pulls us out of those things is so we can have rebirth.
Abraham seeing God show up with a ram on the mountain is the type of spiritual rebirth Jesus talks about in the Christian Gospel narrative. The rebirth in the Spirit and Faith in the Spirit.
When Jesus sends out His followers to do share His Good News, Jesus says, “Don’t worry about what you’re going to say, the Spirit will provide.” Just as what Abraham experienced on the mountain, what we need is provided.
God will provide the sacrifice when you get there.
God will provide the words when you get there.
We don’t have to have it all figured it out.
And all this led me back to how important it is to not only have Faith, but to also tell your story and to seek out a story to tell that requires Faith so we can experience more of the Spirit of God showing up when we need it. That we should be able to have the freedom to do what Abraham did and go out on to a mountain with a belief, and have that belief fulfilled.
Abraham carried the belief of a good God, but it wasn’t until he got to the mountain that he saw that belief lived out. And when we do that ourselves and see Faith become Reality, then Reality changes.
-Cliff
Cliff’s Note: Never grow too old to seek out living a story that requires the Thing beyond oneself.