Risking Faith

Why Don’t We Get It?

God is truly amazing! And faith is the most exciting, thrilling, over-the-top way to live on this planet. I’m not talking about a boring, ordinary, sit-in-your-pew-and-fall-asleep type of faith. We are all sick and tired of that. We have gone down that road already and it seems so empty. We want to connect with God, but How?
     Where?
     When?

Nehemiah says that God is “great and mighty and awesome.” David says He’s majestic and merciful. Isaiah says He’s lofty and glorious and wonderful. Ezekiel says He’s “shining with splendor.” Job say’s He’s beyond our wildest imagination. Yet we insist upon squeezing God into neat little boxes and then wonder why our faith is so finite and fragile. God is messy and mighty, infinite and indescribable, wild and wonderful. When in the world are we going to get it?

We have made our faith ordinary and comfortable and limited. It has lost its mystery. It has become stale and status-quo and downright stifling. We scratch our heads and wonder: Where is the excitement and adventure and heart-throbbing, brain-numbing awe? It’s time to reread our Bible and rethink our preconceived notions. It’s time to plunge into God and see the wide-eyed wonder of it all. It’s time to infuse our faith with the supernatural. We must never allow it to be ordinary or comfortable or limited, ever again. This is where a risking faith begins. This is the beginning of a discovery and an adventure. Now our faith becomes real and relevant and radiant. Now we overflow with a joy and love and indwelling that seems...well, supernatural.

Now the petty bickering and arrogant one-up-manship can be put to bed. Together we can unite beneath the grace and sacrifice of an old rugged cross. As St. Paul writes, the church has many parts, “and we all share the same spirit.” Therefore a riskingfaith focuses on God’s greatness and not our differences. This brings us together—the moderns and post-moderns, the young and old, the future and ancient, the traditional and contemporary, the mystical and moral, the contemplatives and celebrants, and even the Democrats and Republicans—to do what God wants us to do. So what does He want? He wants us to have a riskingfaith that will follow Him into the greatest of all adventures.

It’s time to take the leap!