Ordinary Time

Pause

Our lives are filled with images. They’re everywhere — on our phones, on television, on the side of the road. Pictures of celebrities. Pictures of athletes. Pictures of just about everything.

But what about faith? Where do we find pictures of faith?

Finding faith is no easy task. Neither is becoming a person of faith. But with God’s help it’s possible. With this in mind, we look to Scripture, and we commit ourselves to gathering with other Christ followers. Even now we wait expectantly for a word from God, with the hope that we might become a picture of faith for others to see.

Listen

By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if they were on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were drowned.

By faith Jericho’s walls fell after the people marched around them for seven days.

By faith Rahab the prostitute wasn’t killed with the disobedient because she welcomed the spies in peace.

Hebrews 11:29-31

Think

Faith is a deep word that’s full of mystery. Some people use it to describe a way of believing while others use it to describe a way of living. Both uses of the word are correct.

Faith is about believing. And faith is about living a particular kind of life.

Yet faith is so much more.

According to Hebrews, those with faith can miraculously escape slavery, and even when their masters pursue them and try to enslave them again, faith makes a way. We also learn that those with faith can topple a wall and gain access to people and places that were once out of reach. If that’s not enough, Hebrews tells us that those with faith are sometimes inspired to welcome the “other” in peace, and in doing so they are saved from death.

Indeed, faith is a deep and mysterious word. Though each of us may mean something different when we use it, we are all invited to be faith-full and to give our whole self to the possibility of a new way, or a new world, or a new life.

Chris Robertson

Pray

God, sometimes I feel trapped and lost. But you have given me faith, so I will trust that you are at work and that you intend to deliver and save me. Help me to respond by giving myself more fully to you and my neighbors. Amen.

Go

In Scripture we meet hundreds of faithful people whose stories continue to inspire, enliven, and challenge us today. Each of their stories is a unique picture of faith, as well as a constant reminder that faith is always a call to action.

“Faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession. It is an on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where you’re going but going anyway. A journey without maps.”

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking