Life is hard. Ever wonder if God cares? If following Christ makes a difference? If you have enough faith?
Four years ago on the day I write this, the Preacher stood in the pulpit of the last church he served full-time and read a note that put a period on his almost seventeen year ministry there.
His health - ravished. His job - gone. Our parsonage home - no longer ours to use.
I'm ashamed to admit my puny faith. In the dark of night, I often worried. In the day, I sometimes complained. Would we have enough? How would we live? Was my faith enough? I must have added an inch to my neck, craning to see into the future.
And yet, flowing parallel to those concerns was the awareness of our own history. No matter our life circumstances, God had always been our Rock. We chose to trust him to keep us now; to hold our quaking hands and battered hearts. To lead us as he always had.
Precisely one year later, company downsizing ended my own job as a magazine editor - the good job God had provided eight months earlier. A few months later the Preacher's disability insurance cut out.
For most of the next two years we lived on poppy seed faith and freelance. Our Father in Heaven guided us - one small step at a time.
The exciting thing about "not enough" is that when we apply faith and obedience to that lack, God goes to work. And unlike us, he has the power to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you or I could ever ask, think or imagine.
People who practice faith in God have every reason to be bowed by their own frailty. But we have even more reasons to be lifted by his might. Our greatest challenges are simultaneously God's greatest opportunities. He says yes when the world says no. Possible, when even one's own soul says impossible.
While still in full-time ministry, we expected we would never own our own home. We could never have enough. Make enough. Save enough. Out of ministry and standing still beside our withered streams, we watched God go to work. As provision flowed in from multiple unexpected sources, our faith grew. I stopped tip-toeing around as though owned by a tiny God.
Today, the Preacher and I walked into the bank, and paid off a twenty-five year mortgage - in under three years. Gratitude overwhelms us. We told the banker so, too.
Your and my provisions for life flow through multiple different channels. No matter their names; earnings, gifts, bonuses, grants, inheritances, it's important to call them what they are: God's provisions and God's possessions. Without his kindness, without his breath on you, on me, we are nothing, and we have nothing.
Got a little faith? A willing heart to do things his way? In God's economy, that's enough - and far more.
