A few months ago, I watched the movie, Faith Like Potatoes. The story of a white-African farmer who is forced to move his family from racial-tension filled Zambia into a patch of rugged land in South Africa, I was amazed to watch the transformation in his life as he began to trust God. Through dark seasons of doubt, frustration, and unforeseen challenges, he learned to find peace in his Green Cathedral, his flourishing fields of corn where he would spend hours listening to God's voice and waiting in trust and faith. Despite all odds being against him, he planted a field of potatoes in the midst of a horrific drought, believing that God alone would move, and all he needed to do was act in obedience and wait in faith.
I thought about this movie a lot this past week, especially as I felt my own faith wearing so thin. On the surface, my week was going well… my students were making great progress, my colleagues and I completed a challenging unit review, and the details for an event I've been planning started falling into place… but deep within my heart, my mind, and my spirit, there was unrest. There was great doubt… fear… frustration… and so many other things that tried to choke up the little flame of faith I felt I had left within me.
My teammates and I have been waiting in faith for God to raise $14,800 in each of our accounts. That's $888,000 for sixty of us… nearly one million dollars!
While that amount can seem so daunting, I began to think about Who we are dealing with here. I have a God who created the heavens and the earth, who holds the vast resources of the universe in the palm of His hand. Indeed, all of the resources of mankind cannot compare with the wealth of His glorious riches… nor the depths of His love which He lavishes so kindly upon His children. Not only do we have a God who has it all (and more!), but in His great love for us, He pours it out, not with hesitation or reservation, but with great joy. All we need to do is wait…trust…believe…and receive.
One of my teammates posted such an encouraging verse on our team Facebook page: "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever! Amen!" (Ephesians 3:16-21)
Another one of my teammates posted something else that was truly encouraging…and challenging to each of us… It went something along the lines of this: "Let's not focus on praying that God will move… because He WILL move in His perfect timing. Rather, let us pray that God would stretch and deepen our faith so that we would be able to persevere and endure as we wait on Him."
Like those potatoes growing underground, I believe He is stretching my faith as I learn to wait upon Him. This
year is definitely going to be a year of deeper trust and deeper belief. But I believe that He who has promised these things will bring them through to completion. Hallelujah, Amen! 🙂
Side note: At the end of this week, after feeling pretty worn out and spent, I checked my support account – and was shocked and humbled to see that it had nearly doubled overnight by the generous gift of one of my dear friends. I was truly blown away, but even more so, the gratitude I felt in my heart was accompanied by the challenge of one of God's sweet whispers… "My dear child, I love you so much. But this is just a glimpse of what I can and will do. Are you willing to keep waiting on me?"
Yes, Lord. Yes!
