Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: FAITH (strong, confident belief in God) (02/26/15)
-
TITLE: Crossroad | Previous Challenge Entry
By Glen Goddard
02/27/15 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
My wife and I spent three and a half years as missionaries in South Africa. During the first six months we were part of a Mission Development Team located on a primitive base. We left sunny southern California at the onset of warm summer and the next day arrived in Pretoria, greeted by the southern hemisphere's starting of cold winter. The base amenities' consisted of cold showers, poorly prepared food, cockroaches and no heat in any rooms. Everyday everyone got up when it is dark and we sat collectively in a freezing room wrapped in blankets while one of us led devotions. Then we each went back to our rooms to spend another hour in personal devotions; all before having coffee. Two months after arriving, I was standing early one bitterly cold morning with a hot bowl of oatmeal. Icy blasts of wind were blowing through the room like a sieve. My hands were wrapped around the bowl and I had my head over it to catch the hot steam. There just was not enough heat. I remember distinctly questioning myself "What on earth I was doing here?" This was not my picture of serving the Lord. This is not what I had in mind coming to South Africa. "Lord, did I make a mistake?" That was the first time I really started to examine my faith.
On any day in the year, somewhere in the world there is tragedy. The most common question asked is "Where is God?" People from assorted faiths were asking this question last year when 200,000 lives were extinguished in several minutes from a tidal wave and when an entire village of men, women and children were wiped off the face of the earth in less than a minute by a mudslide. My wife and I struggled with the same question two years ago when within seven months of being diagnosed with cancer, our oldest daughter who was an ardent Christ-follower, was dead. Where was God?
It is easy to say that I am going to step out in faith and trust God. It is not so easy to have my faith stretched. Walking in faith means that maybe I am going to be asked to do things outside of my comfort zone. Living in another culture means that I may have to worship with other Christians in ways that may be uncomfortable, or work with other nationalities who do not share my ways work should be accomplished or eating graciously food that is very different from what I like or expect, or doing ministry that seems meaningless in order to reach a people who show no appreciation.
I learned quickly the "knots" of faith: faith does not just drop out of the sky; faith does not just happen like magic; faith is not a result of my effort to believe.
It took more time to learn the "mean's" of faith: faith means experiencing God under difficult times; faith means learning to go where you have never been before; faith means trusting God for the things that you cannot see, much less understand; faith means trusting God's intentions [Is He always for me or is He out to get something from me?] and finally faith means that I believe that God is capable of producing results from things I cannot see.
It is easy to say "I trust You God" when things look good. But when I get into heart-racing situations those words can melt like butter. I think that faith may be one of the greatest human achievements possible. The test of my faith comes when I have lost control of the situation and am powerless to do anything.
The test of your faith will be when you encounter something beyond your ability to control. Will you suddenly have "spiritual forgetfulness"? Will you lose sight of what God has done for you in the past? Faith is really nothing more than a practice of choosing to trust God at the crossroads of doubt and fear.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
God bless~
One awkard sentence I would change to: "What on earth am I doing here?"
Perhaps lack of information at the outset allowed questioning of faith and purpose to set in.
Now without problems do you feel you have more faith or are you "able to trust in yourself more"?
Problems can cause us to trust more in Him who we can't see while no problems allow us to trust in ourselves.
I like the way you opened with that truth and then expounded it throughout your entry. I'm very acquainted with the harsh conditions many foreign missionaries have had to endure. Thank you for sharing this here. It reminds me not to gripe over my trivial inconveniences, which compared with the difficulties of many Christians is very mild.
Keep up the great work.
I don't think you needed your opening paragraph. You could have just jumped in with the second. If you go back and count, you'll be surprised how many times you used the word faith. Some of the best challenges I've read have been spot on topic without ever using the topic word. I think you could have done that with this piece.
Your inner dialog (you may want to put it in italics next time) was beautiful and shows the reader what doubt looks like. It really made me connect with the MC. You have a great message here and I believe God has great plans for you.
If you haven't already checked out Jan's Writing Basics on the message boards, I'd urge you to do so. She has great lessons for all levels of writers.