Day 3930 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Philippians 1:29 NIV

The evidence of belief

Alas it’s so often something we just don’t see. For the evidence that should be seen of any true belief is nothing short of a willingness to struggle if such is what it takes to ensure our trust in this most beautiful thought is indeed brought about unto its completion. And yet anymore it seems that we’re only willing to follow such an ideal idea up until the point in which such things as pain or other payment are demanded. For as soon as something dares cost us something, no, no we’ll just turn our attentions and intentions unto something that doesn’t.

Never once seeming to mind the continued lack of hope we continue to find.

And that’s because hope itself is something that buys, not sells. And that’s indeed something we’ve gotten well backwards within our world today. For we all love to live as if hope is something that gives something unto us. As if hope is this presence of both a profound promise worth the pursuit but also the planned avoidance of any hardship endured to find it. As if hope guarantees only that which we want and never anything of everything we don’t.

As if hope is there for us and our benefit, and yet, while that is true, that it deserves no betterment its own.

Indeed, we give nothing to hope outside of a few wayward beliefs that are anymore nothing but mere expectations. And while there is a certain degree of validly perceived legitimacy to that seeing as how belief is something given unto that which cannot be seen but is so longingly desired that one becomes unwilling to imagine it going unrealized or elsewise not fulfilled, to so confine the limitlessness of such things as hope and belief to only what we can expect as designed inside minds so prone to selfish gain, no, no this cannot be allowed to remain the way in which we train.

For there comes a day, likely many thereof, in which our every hope, our every trust, our every belief and all our faith will be tested, tried, all but thrown in the pan, and us alongside, that is then sent unto the refiner’s flame in order to burn away what all of it, what all of us wouldn’t be allowed to remain should we actually make it unto the brighter Way that came to pave the path toward the promise of Heaven through miles walked in misery.

That’s the side of Christ we so often wish not to see, and yet the half in which we’re called to share just as much as the other.

But alas we’ve again become a people who live vastly lost within this expectation of a life lived as if a long-stay vacation in which we’re served free breakfast every morning, have a rather delightful itinerary filled past full with all the fun we could stomach and that leading up to a slow stroll along a moonlit beach as the waves of love and liberty lap softly upon the shore singing the song of a soul who knows no struggle, has seen no strife, has met no suffering, thus has no life.

Yes, we want a life lived without what makes life worth living. And that simply because we can’t understand what makes a life worth living. And that simply because we seem to assume that all that makes life feel alive are those easy days and the fun-filled ways in which we long to live all of them that we’re allotted. We’ve come to believe that the best life is that lived without strife, without struggle, without pain or misery or our missing out on anything.

Friends, if we’re not missing anything then for what are we looking?

If we’re not hurting then what are we fighting for? If we’re not alone, afraid, unsure, scared out of our minds at the very thought of the gravity of life and our vastly realized tendency to miss or misunderstand almost everything, how then can we ever possibly grow? Yes, how can we grow if never we know what growing pains are? How can we heal if we’ve never felt harm? What can any measure of solace provide if we’ve not met the doldrums of life?

We need suffering if we’re to understand salvation!

And yet so often we gather together in this now general approach to our every existence as if taken without any suspense, without any diligence, without any discipline. Indeed, even such things as discipleship are only met within a dually sworn agreement unto humility as is undeniably needed if we’re ever to even witness what is another way. For until we’re willing to consider that we may know nothing of life, neither then can we learn anything of the same.

And indeed, much the same can then be said of faith. And indeed, such needs to be said of faith. Why? Because if never we come humbly upon our knees before the throne of grace carved by an old rugged cross and a few rusted nails, then neither shall we come near the kind of understanding that we both could have and thus should have as to the price paid for our freedom.

And if we never enter unto that understanding as to the punishment He endured, then sadly we’ll continue living as if everything we’re doing incurs no such consequence, which will sadly allow us to continue living as if everything we desire is just fine for us to chase, to choose.

But it isn’t. And that’s because belief is worth more than some mere continuation of what already was. Who believes in what they already have? Who longs to remain who they’ve already become? Who wishes to see never anything more in life, of life than whatever sort of life they’ve already witnessed, experienced? Who honestly wants to believe in a measure of such a miracle as mercy and the love which made it manifest that never measures any further than the fractions our fragmented minds can fathom?

Who actually believes in a life lived without pain or misery?

Friends, we’ve already found out this life isn’t it!

Rather all of us have already faced hardship and endured hassle. We’ve all already known suffering and struggle. We’ve all met misery and mayhem. We’ve felt fear and know then faith. Because faith is the absence of fear, but we cannot experience the absence of something unless and until we’ve at first known its presence.

For nothing missing and thus unknown can be understood as not being there if never we knew it to be.

Because we have no possible way knowing any of all we don’t know.

And such is perhaps the most amazing aspect of Heaven and the hope into which we’ve been welcomed there. It’s the promise of our experiencing both all of what God always was, which we’ve always missed, but also none of what this life in this world has become, all of which we’ve not missed and thus won’t miss at all. And that because, well, it does suck to both face and feel the fall. It’s hard to watch those around you give up. It’s miserable to realize that things here aren’t getting better.

It’s heartbreaking to see things daily get worse.

But when we do see those signs of life starting to fade amongst a society anymore so swollen with selfishness that many here live as if they couldn’t breathe without someone else knowing all about what they think, we have this joy of knowing that peace is coming. And that alongside the ability to believe it on the way. But friends, that’s just it, how can we ever come to believe in something better if we can’t allow ourselves to see that better isn’t what we have?

And if we can admit that better isn’t this life we have, but that rather better is always a matter best measured later, then how can we always agree to stop so short of where better must be?

Yes, how can we believe in a belief so passionately, so fervently, so ferociously but only up until the moment in which it asks that we actually put our faith into action?

For make no mistake, it’s easy to have faith when things are easy, and many folks do. But it’s just like those fair-weathered sports fans that we all know about. Yeah, it’s easy to sport that jersey and boast of all the bumper stickers showing your team loyalty plastered all over your Prius when said team is winning and doing well. But if they hit a losing streak, well, some “fans” have been known to freak and start to lose their daring to be seen supporting such disappointment.

Because we all want to feel as if we’re “winning at life”. We all want to feel as if we’re getting everything right. We want to meet so much success and accomplishment every single day that we’re in every way such marvels amongst a mundane mankind that everyone around us can all but feel the glow of our glory as written in a story in which we do nothing but succeed and thus never suffer.

But friends, again, this life doesn’t work that way. And even more so, faith can’t work that way.

Why?

Because faith is a measure of trust placed in that or they who are of the moment unseen. Faith is, as the Scripture defines, “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” It thus is an undertaking that literally only exists within the understanding that what can be isn’t yet. That what will happen hasn’t started. That where we will go and who we’ll become are but distant theories held on this side of what remains the long ride to what’s eventually proven our potential fulfilled.

But friends, how can we ever find the fullness of our potential if never we endure the testing which grinds away everything it isn’t? How can we get stronger if never we’re placed under strain? How can anything grow, be it faith, hope, trust, love, if they’re not held the flames and allowed there to find what all they aren’t?

How can we become who we were meant to be if we’re not held similarly?

To the flame so as to help us find that decided difference between who we’ve become and what of it cannot remain if we’re to become something better?

That’s the price of hope that, once paid, gives us the evidence of our belief.

It’s the ticket that grants our admittance if you will. Because at first we have to find that kind of audacious confidence in something if we’re to ever imagine even beginning the journey to find out for sure. And then, once we have that confidence, we’ve to then put it into action because confidence, like faith or love or hope or basically anything else for that matter, it’s considered dead without action. Faith without works is deemed dead.

And that’s because if we’re not willing to allow faith to move us to act, then of what substance can said faith have?

Same of hope. Same of love. Same of joy or peace or anything.

If none of them move us to move, to try, to do whatever it takes to meet them in greater measure and deeper depth, then are they not simply dead?

Friends, faith and hope and love are all living things as they are only ever experienced by those living. And so they thus demand movement, discipline, determination, some stinking sign of life that proves they’re more than just words written down somewhere.

Kind of like Scripture itself.

Indeed, we’re told that the Word is alive and active, but friends, if that Bible sets dusty on the cabinet, then of what use is it? How can His Word change us if never we face it? How can we experience the betterment for which it was breathed, our very benefit, if we never open it?

Can’t you see it?

Action is mandatory!

And yet our most common action is that spent running away when the going gets tough.

And why is that?

Because we’re weak. We’re lazy. We’re overfed, overweight, undernourished and thus unsure of who we are. Because we think we’ve got life all figured out simply because we happen to have come upon this way of existing in which we can do the same batch of nothing and find thus the same results consistently. Yes, we are looking anymore for mostly only consistency, and granted, that can be a good thing.

But friends, if all our kind of consistency can prove is only us consistently running away from life’s difficulties, than all it can find for us is more of the same weakness that we agreed could remain for us to find it in the first place.

We are a people of finish lines, always seeking that place in which to pull off the road and out of the race that is this life that is aimed at what is a place that is not anything of what this place has been allowed to become by we who are a people so fat and lazy that we actually think that we’ve already reached the very best our lives can be.

Is this truly as good as it gets? Just us always living in fear of having to do something hard, face something scary?

Are we truly happy living as it temples to fear and cowering?

Or do we not always opt to do so simply because we’ve come to believe that we’ve something to lose?

And that what we apparently have to lose is worth as much if not more than whatever we might gain were we to try the hard thing, the scary way, the painful path as is paved in a narrowness that doesn’t allow for anything of everything we’ve come to believe we stand to lose?

How can we believe that He who willingly lost His life is not then worth whatever loss or struggle or suffering we might be asked to endure along the way toward the promise for which He did it?

Friends, how can we claim we believe in anything if we’ll never give anything to any belief we claim we have?

Isn’t belief worth more than that?

And if it is, and it is, well then where’s our evidence?

What proof do we have that we believe so fully in something that we’re willing to face whatever it takes to see for sure? For again, belief is something only had in that which is unseen. That means that we cannot believe in what we see as what already is asks no such trust as it can be readily witnessed. Nobody has to have faith in what is known for certain. Faith is rather a matter measure in a blind trust that we’ll not be disappointed once we arrive at that place that we can’t see yet.

What evidence do we have in us, our words, our actions, our thoughts even that says we believe in something so much better than whatever already is that we’re willing to welcome whatever comes just so we can get closer and know we are?

That’s the point!

How can we know we’re getting closer to that which we believe if never we meet any challenge along the way? Friends, challenges change us. They push us. The beat us. They bruise us. They do all this because they’re meant to refine us and thus help us to find what of us isn’t up to the task we’re trying for.

What are we trying for? And well, if nothing is trying us along the way, then again, how can we ever know we’re getting closer?

The point is that entire purpose of sanctification is to see more of Christ in us, and thus less of who we were before we found out that He’d found us. And yes, that obviously means losing some things. That means making some changes. It means letting go of the things that can’t come with us wherever it is that He’s leading us.

It means losing a life.

And yes, that’s hard. It’s scary. It’s miserable as it does truly hurt in some amazing ways to wave goodbye to what’s long been seen as plenty good enough. In fact, it often makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to rid our lives of what we’ve come to enjoy whilst facing into the flames of a faith that brings plenty of those moments we definitely won’t.

But friends, enjoyment was never the purpose of life that it’s elsewise been allowed to become. The purpose of life is rather to grow.

And as we all know, growing brings pain.

How then can we ever believe we’re growing if we’re not met with the cost?

Again, the entire point of this journey called faith is for us to grow in Christ and He in us. But friends, He is more than just some big teddy bear in the sky who exists only to ensure that our personal ride is one of ease and tranquility. Yes, there is the Jesus we all long to know who bounces us as if children upon His knee and gives us all the bread and fish we can eat, all the water we can drink.

But there’s also the Jesus who flips over tables of those doing as they shouldn’t and even He who endured what He shouldn’t have had to.

There is the Jesus who died on the cross and suffered in ways we cannot even begin to imagine while doing it.

But friends, they’re all the same Jesus!

The Jesus who welcomed children and rebuked those who hindered them from coming unto Him is the same as He who blessed the bread that was broken and fed all who were hungry, and so too the same as He who hung in that agony so as to pay the price owed of our many failures.

Friends, we don’t get to pick and choose which Jesus we follow as there is only the One. And so, point is that if we’re to be found in Him and thus He seen in us, then we should expect to experience at least a little bit of all He is.

And yes, He is mercy, He is healing, He is love and hope and that most joyful promise of that everlasting peace in a place that this world so obviously isn’t. But He is also the Lamb that was led to being slaughtered.

We have to stop seeing this life’s suffering as some kind of evidence that we’re doing something wrong and start to wonder if maybe it’s there because we’re finally doing something right.

Because this verse says that it has been granted unto us not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for Him. And so suffering in and for our faith is a gift.

And so we have to stop running away from it.

Simply because He calls us to take up our crosses and follow Him and goes so far as to tell us that anyone who doesn’t, anyone who won’t isn’t worthy of Him.

What do we think He means?

There’s just no way to misunderstand what He said.

But friends, what evidence do we have that we don’t?

#LeaveNoSoulUntold