Faith is Like a Laundry Basket

I can still picture myself standing on the pool's edge with my mother saying, "Jump, I'll catch you," in one of our many swimming lessons. Though I was still nervous, I was confident my mother would catch me because she said she would, and I trusted her because she always did. 

Another time, a much older me as a college student stood in my apartment wondering, like many other poor college students, how I would make it until payday. It looked relatively bleak this time, and I knew I needed a financial miracle. I thought about what I could do, but my resources were limited. I released the problem, asking God to provide what I needed to get me through the next few days. To this day, I still remember what happened. Soon after, I was doing my laundry. I picked up a piece of clothing, and a ten-dollar bill was at the bottom of the basket. I knew it was not mine, but I was the only one there - it was nobody's. It was just enough to meet my needs. 

The common element in these experiences and so many more as I've lived life is trust. Experiencing the power of God in life when times are uncertain, or direction is clouded requires faith. Our hope, no matter how fragile, placed in our Father's hands, is like jumping off the side of the pool, sitting at the kitchen table, or enduring a long commute, all the while offering petitions, praying desperate prayers, and having deep audible conversations with Him. It's trusting Someone above us enough to fall into their strong arms and know they will catch us. It is then that we exercise faith. 

God's word is filled with countless examples of people who exercised faith in His eternal plans, regardless of whether they came to pass in their lifetime. 

Noak built an ark in a time, though it had never rained.

Abraham left his pagan roots and believed God for a land He would give to him and his descendants. 

Joseph believed in God through abandonment, slavery, and imprisonment and became second in command in all of Egypt. 

Moses renounced a life of royalty to lead the Israelites towards the promised land. God gave him a glimpse, though He had never entered it. 

The Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry land with walls of water on either side to escape their enemies.

The Israelites marched around Jericho, and the walls fell down. 

Gideon quit hiding from the enemy and became a fearless warrior. 

David, a mere shepherd boy, became the most notable King of Israel. 

Friends, faith matters. It directs our futures in powerful ways. It keeps us from being prisoners of doubt. It enables us to relinquish the death grip on life's weighty matters and jump into the pool of His divine plans and provisions. 

It's like a laundry basket... where there is so much more than the apparent awaiting.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful."

Hebrews 10:23 NIV

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