Next time you go into a crowded room, I want you to try something. Ask, “Who let the dogs out?” casually, but loud enough for other people to hear, and see how many people respond by bursting into the hit single, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” by the Baha Men…that song has become a cultural classic for our day and age. Everyone knows it! But I’m willing to bet that’s the only song you know by the Baha Men.
And that’s no slam to them! They’re what we would call a one-hit wonder, and there’s plenty of them out there. We still all know the song, whether they made it any bigger later or not.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m sort of the same way. And so was the Apostle Paul! He had just one message he kept coming back to in all of his writing, and it was the good news of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2, Galatians 6).
I want to be the same way….the kind of pastor, father, and person who always comes back to proclaiming Jesus, no matter what else happens. Make me a one-hit wonder for Jesus, you know what I’m saying?!
I want to talk to you today about one specific aspect of walking with Jesus, and it’s this: the problem with walking by faith…is that you have to walk by faith.
But for Paul, walking by faith is just something the people of God are called to do.
Totally counter-cultural, right?! Especially today, we live primarily by sight, not by faith. We’ve gotten really good at viewing the world around us, weighing many potential outcomes, and then reasonably predicting certain results. So we go through life with reasonable expectations, and that’s how we make decisions. Walking by sight is our norm — it comes easy. And there is nothing inherently wrong with it. On the contrary, we should be happy that we do not live completely random lives!
But walking by faith doesn’t mean we have to live irrational lives. Walking by faith doesn’t mean trusting in pipe dreams or false hope. Walking by faith is living where the predominant narrative of our lives is not just the details dictated by our circumstances, but the story crafted for us by God.
“Walking by faith is living where the predominant narrative of our lives is not just the details dictated by our circumstances, but the story crafted for us by God.” Click To Tweet
As followers of Jesus, we have to view all our circumstances through the lens of trust — trust in a loving and holy God who is working in and through everything to make us more like Jesus, so that the world becomes a better place. Faith is following God’s plan for our lives. When we view our lives as purposeful, rather than happenstance, as designed rather than random, we begin to see beauty in the midst of chaos and are moved to joy in the midst of hardship. Walking by faith tells us that because Jesus is faithful we can trust Him when we have questions.
Remember, God’s overarching storyline is the purposes and glory of God and not our own destruction or belittlement…because God’s glory and our good always go hand-in-hand!
But that’s the problem with walking by faith — you have to do it! We have to choose it. In a world that only understands walking by sight, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to see things from a unique vantage point…and we are empowered to celebrate in the process of watching God at work.
This week, where do you need to walk by faith? Where are you allowing your circumstances to blind you from the overarching narrative of a loving and good God? Just as the clay does not understand what the potter is doing, you may not understand what God is doing. That’s why it’s called faith…trusting in God’s holiness unseen. Just as the potter knows what type of vessel they are creating, so God knows exactly how His story meeting your circumstances will make you into what you really, deep down, desire to be: Jesus-like.