Four Nights ago, I sat amongst a captivated audience, in a packed auditorium with a lone speaker on the stage. He said that at our core we need to have faith; because faith gives us courage and without faith, how can we expect ourselves to be courageous?
It’s safe to say that the man on stage, Dr. Benjamin Carson,
the son of a mother with a third grade education,
raised in inner city Detroit, who became the youngest
Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 33, and the first person to
successfully separate conjoined twins
is Courageous. It’s not a coincidence that he is a man of faith.(More on Dr. Carson: here)
Courageous isn’t a word I have used to describe myself. In fact, I would categorize courage among my ‘weaknesses’ rather than my ‘strengths’. Many times I don’t want to inconvenience people, I wont step out, I’d rather slink back and accept the consequences.
A week ago, I woke up to a text saying that my support letters may have indicated the wrong address to send donations. The horrible notion of misdirected checks, and confused donors.
What a worry? What a storm.
You see because our lives seem to operate on this teeter totter of
Peace and Anxiety of Faith and Worry
More of one means less of the other.
In a way, my increasing worry was the marked reduction of faith.
The Lord continues to amaze, and show me that He is worthy of belief. Later that day I stumbled across my account balance, which had been updated to include the first few donations. At first I thought it was wrong because I was so caught up in the worry of potentially misplaced letters. There it was, $2000 in my account. They might not have even had the right address! (Turns out the address on the letter is old but will be forwarded to the current address until July.)
The donations keep pouring in, last Wednesday over $3000 was added to my account. This Thursday, we delivered 175 pepperoni rolls from a recent fundraiser. People are sharing in the adventure and it is so much more than generating money. Each gift is a symbol of faith in what the Lord is doing, and is going to do. Take a look at the word ‘encourage’. It means ‘to inspire’ or ‘to give courage’, and that courage is the result faith, just like Dr. Carson alluded to earlier.
When we encourage others; be it a smile, a note, gifts, a hug–we are sharing our faith–Jesus Christ the Hope of the World. To have received this kind of faith, inspires change in me. It says I can no longer slink back, but I will step forward because of Christ. His power is made perfect in my weakness, and I can no longer be the same.
Have you struggled with timidity? Do you know the weight of worry too well? I pray that we would step forward into the lives God has for us.
Thank you!
