More faith musings...

The entire lifetime of Enoch was three hundred and sixty-five years.
Enoch walked with God; and then he disappeared, because God took him
away.

Genesis 5:23-24

I've often pondered that familiar passage. As a child I used to think
that was a really neat story. The tales of men who never saw death were
always most intriguing-- probably because I heard them so frequently. I
guess, as a child, there's something mystical about those stories. It's
kind of like a real life occurrence of the "X-Files" (of which I was a
huge fan by the way). For me, the intrigue was in the two words: "he
disappeared." But nowadays, that's not enough for my INTJ mind. For a
couple months now I have from time to time revisited that same story in
my mind. Today it was brought to my attention by a greatly-needed,
well-timed chapel message. Whenever it comes to mind I always ask
myself, "What kind of faith does it take to do that?" Faith, sadly
enough, is often somewhat of an impossibility for me. Or maybe it's just
characteristic of all children of God-- we just don't often readily
admit it. So here I am, admitting that I have very little faith and at
times no faith at all. I think it's because I want my faith to be
mystical. I want it to be huge faith, that moves mountains, that uproots
trees. Not just this mustard seed faith Jesus kept talking about. How is
that going to accomplish the impossible? But then we look at Enoch's
life and see how simple it was for him and how simple it can and should
be for us. "Enoch walked with God" the verse says. There's nothing
mystical about that. In fact, it's so ridiculously practical. He didn't
all of a sudden hear a message, go down the aisle, and experience some
existential, Keswick life-altering decision that landed him directly on
cloud nine. No, he just had simple faith in his supreme God for the day
he was in. The verse doesn't say he ran to God, or one day was able to
meet God. He just walked with God. How often do I, after times of
victory and immense, seemingly unshakeable walking with God in an
instant just stop walking? It's times like those I feel like God is
playing the game where your older sister has a piece of candy, holds it
behind her back, and tells you to guess which one it's in. It's times
like those I feel like I chose God's "empty hand" and missed out on His
blessing, or even worse-- stepped outside of His will. I'll bet Elijah
felt the same way. He destroys all the prophets of Baal and this thought
enters into his mind: "Wow I've accomplished nothing. I'm the only one
left loyal to God." So he tells it to Him. And God responds to him in a
quiet, gentle whisper, "It's ok, I've got 7,000 more that love Me." I
think Elijah wanted something mystical, something huge like God gave him
on Mount Carmel. But God simply told him that 7,000 will get the job
done. I do the same thing. God does something amazing, something divine
in my life; He let's all the pieces of my life fall right into place.
Then other times, usually right after the victory, He whispers. I
don't know what makes God do and what makes Him whisper. Sometimes
it's much easier to figure out later on; sometimes it's not. But
this is just the way the Christian life is. We are going to have times
of weakness. Enoch probably did, and we know Elijah did. But, they both
had happy endings. And I'm confident we will too.