The End of A Quiet Rant

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen 

(Hebrews 11:1, KJV).

I suppose I have been on a quiet rant for a bit about resilience. 

The whole idea of resilience and bouncing back is really dependent on a fixed point from which we experience the world...from which the rest of the world makes sense. That point from which all else is viewed forms not only the context but the focal point from which everything else makes sense.  There have been times that I have shifted or confused where that point was in my life.  Thinking back at times it has been a relationship, at other times a career, sometimes a church...but when I am truly in focus that focal point is Christ.

Trying to unpack that in a short article is almost impossible. My evangelical heart, mind, training and commitment wants to boil it all down to a personal relationship...but that is far too truncated and limited. Is that the starting point? Absolutely, but that is like saying I have experienced the Grande Canyon when I have looked at a black and white 5X7 photograph of The South Rim.

What limits me? Me...my viewpoint, my ability to adequately communicate, my bias, my finite-ness in the middle of God's grand horizon.  What expands my view of  God's horizon? Each experience where he calls me to toss the small point of my faith, hope and experience of grace out into the big expanding world.

Does He toss me out thoughtlessly, or without care to the bounce that he knows will come? NO!

Does it feel like free fall from my experience of the toss? YES!

Does each time that I go through the cycle of sending, experiencing, integrating and bouncing back a learning experience? YES!

Does He bring meaning to the discrete, and  the painfully concrete experiences of life? Of course... As I begin to step back from the experience and allow Him time and heart space to work, meaning emerges   The view begins to focus yet again.  I come away with an experience of faith and hope interacting with the big, wide world renewed.  That is when the evidence of  a God that works, that wills and that acts increases within my heart, my life, my experience, hope and strength.

So give me another toss Lord...