Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith, originally uploaded by eatbitter.

Ideas are cheap and easy. Everyone has them, they're practically lying around for the taking. Just today I was thinking that someone should invent a fluorescent light tube with edges--like a rectangular prism--so that they wouldn't roll off of things so easily. Stupid, I know, but it could possibly inspire the right kind of person to go out there and make a lot of money with a similar concept.


But this doesn't just apply to work, inventions, and new year's resolutions--it's actually critical to our faith.  

Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. "But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great." 

-Luke 6:47-49

When the tragedy struck Japan recently, I was certain that I should give some money to the relief effort. But was just wishing them well doing any good? "If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" (James 2:16)

That, my friends, is a challenge.

Did you ever see the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? If not, you are seriously missing out! Anyway, there is a scene where Indiana is supposed to cross a gaping chasm (so deep that you can't see to the bottom) and enter a door which is probably 80 feet away. There's no way he can make it. He's doomed. Unless--he takes a leap of faith. He does just that and puts out his foot...slowly, carefully...and then in one heart-thumping moment shifts all of his weight out into nothingness. Lo and behold, he finds that there was an invisible bridge beneath him all the time. If he hadn't stepped out in faith he would never have seen it.

I heard somewhere that "faith without action is belief". We can believe something all day long, but God is calling us to more than that. He is calling us to stake our lives on the Truth, and to actually go out there and do something instead of sitting inside planning to do something someday.

And when we take that leap of faith there is a promise for us: there's a great big loving Daddy with His arms wide open, ready to catch us on the other side.