Every day I walk to the train and it takes me about 8 minutes. During these walks, I always feel more connected to God. I put my headphones in, it’s quiet and there I can commune with God. For 8 minutes, without the hustle and bustle, without having to be super vigilant about everything and everyone around me, I get to dedicate these 8 minutes to God.
On one of these walks, I began to ask God about faith. I wondered why life isn’t easier when you have faith, or why doesn’t my heart feel comforted with faith alone? And this was the response: My heart and my head are disconnected. My head, is more logical and thinks about things that I know for sure. While my heart focuses on the things that I wish for. There is a disconnect because the mind relies on the past, the logistics, prior experience but the heart yearns for the future, the unknown, the possibilities. Now there is a third part, and that is, I live in the present. My past experience and the future hoped for, can drastically differ from my reality. At times, this struggle manifests itself as anxiety, because of the constant battle between what I know, what I hope for, and what I see.
I am now learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, this reality will not change. No matter how far I go in my faith, it will eventually become my past experience and the future will once again be unknown. I look at Abraham, the father of faith and how he was called out to the unknown where his faith was tested over and over. God first called him to leave his hometown on a promise, that he will become a great nation. All he had was a promise of things to happen in the future, and I’m sure he had experienced God’s faithfulness before, but his reality was that he was 75 and childless. How nerve racking this must have been? Put yourself in this situation of having to leave to another country but you’re not sure where your final destination will be. Just imagine having to tell your family and friends goodbye but not saying where you will be going, or if you’ll be coming back. But Abraham had a promise from God and that’s all he needed.
All through this journey, we see a strong relationship between Abraham and God. He didn’t have anyone else to turn to, because if we look at the reality of his story, it seems ridiculous. But even in the most ridiculous of situations, if God gave the command, there is no reason to doubt. At 87 years old Abram had a son with Hagar, 12 year since God told him he will be a great nation. But this was not the plan God had, Abram was going to have a son with Sarai and that will be the promised child. So often when God makes us a promise, we try to help him out. We try to help God out, the creator of the whole earth; it took him 6 days to create the world and we want to help him out with our little situation. We forget at times that he’s greater than time, greater than our logic, greater than the laws that govern science. Therefore, if he says it and it doesn’t seem possible, remember we are still trying to figure out how the majority of God’s creations are possible.
Abram’s faith was tested again with Isaac. Would he trust God still, after seeing this part of the promise fulfilled, would he continue trusting God with his only son, his promise? Abraham’s story was not one of faith highlights, it was a daily walk that required his daily trust in God. As we go on our daily walks with God, we should also be reminded that faith is not only the big miracles, but the everyday steps we take towards the miracle. Like Abraham, let us put our trust in God with each step we take, be it an 8-minute walk or a mile’s run. With each step you take, know that God is with you, his promises are true, and you are one step closer to his promise to you.