We’ve reached the halfway point of Leap Of Faith. For those who are just tuning in, this is an exciting opportunity we’ve taken as a whole church over the last two years to exercise our faith muscles and believe some big things for us personally and for us as a whole church. The word I’m hearing is that this year’s Cross That Moat challenge hasn’t been easy and has caused many of you to re-examine how faith works.

Strange stuff

I’ve found exercising faith kind of like gathering “manna”. Manna, which in Hebrew meant something like, “What the heck is that?” was the strange, miraculous food God provided for his people in the wilderness. You can find the full story in Exodus 16, but for our purposes, I’d just like to highlight a few similarities between manna and my experience with faith…

Manna appeared everyday on the ground just outside the Israelites’ tent doors. The people could gather it or trample it. Their choice. So it is with faith. More than an emotional rush of confidence or certainty, faith is a decision we make to trust. We decide everyday. But decision leads to something. The Israelites had to do something with the manna that was right there in front of them. It had to be gathered and eaten. Likewise, faith must translate into action if it’s to do us any good, even if that action is to accept “no” for an answer or be patient and wait.

Couldn’t be stored

Manna had a very short shelf life. It would be full of worms the next morning if you tried to save it overnight. Today’s manna would not do for tomorrow. A fresh supply was necessary for each new day. I’ve found faith to be like that. Its expiration date is “today”, “ right now”. Each day is different, new challenges, new situations, and each requiring fresh faith. Yesterday’s faith won’t do. It’s like climbing a ladder. I have to start at the bottom rung each time – with the basic decision to trust Jesus.

When we try living off of yesterday’s faith, we find ourselves going stale. That’s because faith, like manna can “spoil”, that is, it can easily develop into a “faith in our own faith” thing rather than a “simply following Jesus” thing.

Always enough

In the Exodus story some people “gathered more” manna, and some “gathered less” manna. But no matter, in either case it was always enough. Likewise, faith isn’t a “one size fits all” deal. Some easily grab lots of faith. While for others struggle coming up with just a little bit. There are times when I experience faith big time and at other times I barely come up with enough to fill a thimble. But when it’s focused on Jesus, it’s somehow always enough.

Remains a mystery

Finally, manna was a mystery. The people scratched their heads and said, “What is this stuff?” At the end of the day why and how faith works remains largely a mystery to me. I will never be mathematics that I can master or fit into a nice neat formula. My faith hasn’t developed in a predictable, safe, climate controlled greenhouse where every prayer is answered. It’s been worked out in a real world of uncertainty and difficulty where I’ve had to make real life choices as to who or what I’m going to trust or if I’m going to trust at all. Sometimes having faith has worked out well and other times it’s left me dismayed and puzzled. Yet as I’ve kept an eye on Jesus, faith keeps miraculously and mysteriously showing up in my life, giving me hope and sustaining me throughout my journey with him.

Hey, I’d love to here what you think on this subject. You can contact me at info@northbrooklynvineyard.org.

See you Sunday,

Mike T