Thread Bare

I was thinking about some of my favorite things, my favorite t-shirt for example. My favorite t-shirt also happens to be my oldest one. It is a Captain America t-shirt that I bought to wear with my groomsmen at our wedding. As much as the wedding means to me, it is not the reason it is my favorite shirt, but rather the simple fact that it is my oldest. It is stretched (especially around the middle), worn, and comfortable. Other favorites of mine, books, movies, shoes, coffee mug, Patriots hat (yes I have a favorite) all have one thing in common: they are well used. I mean to say that I don’t lock them away in a glass case to preserve their pristine condition, they actually get worn, read, watched, etc… every time I sip coffee from my Patriots mug (are you noticing a trend?) it increases the personal value for me, even if it loses a resale value. For those that think faith is an antiquated idea, I view my personal faith in the same way. Faith only has value to us when it is used. It can’t be locked up in an academic case, or a stained glass house. It must be worn, read, watched, run in, drunk from. Every time we use our faith, it increases in value to us. It doesn’t make much sense to someone who is watching from outside the arena of struggle, but faith needs to be scratched up. Here is the hard part of this short idea: faith can only be used where faith is necessary. After all, “who hopes for what he already has?”. If I follow this thought to its conclusion, sometimes if I feel distant from God, distant from faith, maybe I need to get back to where faith is necessary. Even as a missionary pastor I default to a comfortable level where situations get filtered through ministry policy or “best practice” instead of wrestling through prayer with the issue. I want to wear my faith out this year. I want to believe for huge gigantic things. I want to utterly depend on God for a miracle. I want my faith to be thread bare from movement. Join me.