To My Magnificent Agents, Staff and Friends:
Due to the Easter holiday, I am sending this week’s Motivation out a day early. I will also be out of the country for the next two weeks so you will not be receiving another Motivation until Friday, May 13th. I am going to Debrecen, Hungary on a mission trip with 11 other men. The trip is put together by the Salvation Army, an organization that I have supported for most of my adult life. The two main projects that we will be working on will be putting a roof on the home of a local resident and building a shelter for outdoor feeding and clothing distribution. Please pray for our success.
One other “assignment” that will be asked of each of us is to give a 5-7 minute testimony of our faith. That task, coupled with it being Holy Week, has been challenging my thoughts this week. As such, I have chosen faith as this week’s topic. In so doing, I do not wish to portray myself as being worthy of being called faithful. I am certainly no authority on the matter. There have been numerous times in my life when I have failed in my faithfulness both on a human and spiritual level. Most often, these were caused by the sins of pride, greed or selfishness. It was not that I did not have faith, rather I betrayed my faith.
Anyone who denies that they have faith or that faith exists at all is being dishonest. If there was no faith none of us could live in this world. There would be nothing but chaos. We sleep at night because we have faith that we will wake in the morning. We eat food and drink water because we have faith that neither will poison us. We drive a car or get on planes because we have faith that we will arrive at our desired destination. None of these outcomes are absolute. If fact, nothing is absolute without faith. Faith creates within us courage, hope, confidence, calmness and an assuring trust. The cynic might argue against spiritual faith, but he or she that argues that faith in any form does not exist or is useless is either a liar and a fool, perhaps both.
For most of my life I fought to keep my spiritual faith subdued. I didn’t deny God. I ignored Him. I was too busy attending to myself to attend to Him. I convinced myself that by the power of my own attributes I could achieve all that I needed and wanted. Amazingly, God cooperated. He allowed me great victories and accomplishments without asking or demanding any recognition or credit. God is not only all-loving, He is also patient and forgiving.
Power is a heady drug for humans. To acknowledge God’s role in one’s life through faith necessarily involves ceding power to Him. That is something that I was not willing to do.
As I matured and through the intercession of several influential people I encountered in my journey, namely my mother, my wife and my son, I began to realize that, while power and success in life offer immense pleasure, fulfillment in life demands faith in God. As your faith strengthens, your need to have power and control diminishes proportionately. And actually, rather than feeling weakened, to your great delight and benefit, you begin to become quite powerful and able to face life’s obstacles in a much more effective way. Faith makes all things possible and bearable, not easy.
My faith struggles are far from over. In fact, in many ways they are just beginning. God knows that. He is patient.
That is my testimony.
I would like to share with you a little story that, when I discovered it recently, spoke much to me about my faith journey. It is called The Bike Ride.
At first I saw God as an observer, like my judge, keeping track of things I did wrong. This way, God would know whether I merited heaven or hell when I died. He was always out there, sort of like the President. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I really didn’t know Him at all.
But later on, when I recognized my higher power better, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride, on a tandem bike, and I noticed God was in the back helping me pedal.
I don’t know when it was that He suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since…When I had control, I thought I knew the way. It was always the shortest distance between two points.
But when He took the lead, He knew delightful cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places and at breakneck speeds; it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He kept saying, “Pedal, pedal!”
I worried and became anxious, asking, “Where are You taking me?” He just laughed and didn’t answer, and I found myself starting to trust Him more and more, because when I’d say, “I’m scared,” He’d lean back and touch my hand.
I did not trust Him at first, in control of my life. I thought He’d wreck it. But He knew bike secrets, knew how to make it bend and take sharp corners, jump to clear places filled with rocks, fly through shorten scary passages.
And I’m learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I’m beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, God. And when I’m sure I can’t go on anymore, He just smiles and says, “Pedal…”
Faith enables persons to be persons because it lets God be God – Carter Lindberg
Have an AWE-full weekend!
Bill