The Greatest Journey

When it comes to faith, we can often find ourselves on a mission to find ours without realizing that’s what we’re looking for. Yes, that sounds a bit ridiculous, but think about how you view faith. When you’re young, you simply have it. You don’t understand it, and you generally aren’t searching for it. You go from place to place, trusting what you’ve been taught and what you “intuitively” know to be correct. You don’t question things as much as you do when you hit adulthood. That’s when the doubt sets in.

As we talked about last week, the devil is a master deceiver. He is very good at making us doubt everything we know. A little disappointment here, a little pain there…and we begin to question whether or not anyone is looking out for us—parents, loved ones, and even God. If we weren’t already believers, we even may find ourselves blaming Him for all of the things that go wrong. Even if we are believers, we may become angry with God and wonder why he is allowing us to go through all that we go through.

By the time we reach middle age, it’s likely that we’ll find ourselves at a crossroads. Do we continue on the path that leads away from God or do we make the turn and decide to try and understand what’s behind all of the drama? This is where we decide whether to trust Him or try to navigate life on our own. That choice shapes how we face every challenge that follows.

Strangely, that progression in faith is what strengthens us. God is patient while we learn to trust Him. He wants us to trust Him, but He won’t make us lean on Him. He gives us the choice—and at first, we usually get it wrong. Either by blindly trusting everything that people have taught us about God or by refusing to trust anything at all. Either way, you are choosing. None of us masters faith without walking a few hundred miles on an ever-changing path. We need the experience—good or bad—to help us understand when He’s blessing us or when He’s pressing us. For example, when I was young, I often went to church with my grandparents or aunts. My parents didn’t really go, so if I wanted to go to Bible School or anything like that, I had to hitch a ride with family members who regularly attended church. Through the years, I went to one church or another and I just had fun. I loved Bible School because we got to make crafts and eat cookies and drink punch. But I had no real understanding of what I was supposed to be learning. I just went.

Later on, when I was a teenager, I joined the crowd at church and actually figured out how to look like I knew why I was there. The key statement there is that I “looked like” I knew why I was there. I knew how to dress like a Christian, sing worship songs like a Christian, attend every service like a Christian, and speak the language of a Christian. But my example of a good Christian was any other person who was also doing those things. Not the One whose behavior we were to be modeling. We all knew how to act like each other, but I’m not sure any of us understood how to be like Jesus.

Much later in the game, after all of the things—we may have even stepped away for a time—but upon our return, our desire to be Christians probably meant something a bit different. For me, I’d been drifting along for nearly twenty years before I decided it was time to find my faith. I had put it away long before the rape, long before the miscarriages, the financial problems, and the divorce. I hadn’t used it when I needed it the most. But there it was, still functioning although it hadn’t been used in a very long time. When I finally picked it back up, I wanted more than anything to understand the God whom I was determined to trust with the rest of my life.  

I’d collected enough evidence along the way to know that He was, in fact, real. And I was ready to get to know Him. I studied, I prayed, I tried my hardest to learn why He does the things He does. And when all was said and done, I found that He was nothing like those who professed to be like Him. He was everything they were and everything they could never be, all at the same time. And I needed Him more than I’d ever needed anything. The best thing about it was that all I needed to do was ask. All I needed to do was to say, “God, I need you.” And He was right there, ready to cover me with His blessings of healing, provision, and protection. He was there to cover me with His love. And all that I ever needed was all that He ever wanted. But it took the journey to help me see that.

If you’re in a place that doesn’t make sense, or you’ve been going through something that you can’t imagine you’ll be able to overcome, my prayer for you is that you’ll allow yourself to make the journey. Don’t be afraid to walk the path. It’s necessary. And it’s well worth the steps. They say it may not make sense to you now and “they” are correct. You may not. While you’re walking, you’re learning how to trust Him. And little by little, it will become clear that the journey was the point.  

Follow the Clues

Every journey leaves evidence of God's faithfulness.

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