Being an adult comes with responsibilities and character we could never have imagined when we first believed.

Hebrews 12:12-14 “Therefore, strengthen your tired arms and your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not become worse, but rather be healed”.

Many years ago while living in Charlotte N.C.,  i stood alone in the dark on my back porch, weeping before the Lord asking, “Why, oh why, am i always in the midst of a problem, always seeming to have a hard time, running against the wind, feeling like i’m continually in the middle of some dilemma? Why? My mind and heart are tired!”  As i stood there listening to the wind in the tree tops, quietly sobbing, tears of frustration running off my chin, the Lord gently spoke to me and said, “Most of the time it’s the only time you come to me palms up.”

i wasn’t in sin. i wasn’t aware of any gross error or unbelief.  i even repented of things i’d never thought of in case there was something i missed.  But yet, things remained the same. You know, when you’re in the middle of a miracle, most of the time it doesn’t look like much of a miracle. God was changing my heart but it sure didn’t feel like it.  Looking back i realize i was practicing “self-cannibalization”, blaming myself for everything bad or wrong, calling myself names in the mirror, regret and remorse had come to visit, but now they don’t want to leave. A “root of bitterness” was growing, entwining itself around my feet, fertilized by self-loathing, watered by disappointment and frustration. God’s intent was for me to grow up and believe Him.

Matthew 22:39, “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” How do i love myself; in what fashion?  Let us exactly take note of the words of Jesus, “love your neighbor as you love yourself” not “loathe your neighbor as you loathe yourself”. We all know that’s what He said, but underneath our declarations of understanding, we still maintain the attitude which says, “If i were God, i wouldn’t like me either.” Jesus said, “love”, not “loathe”.  If we’ll loathe ourselves chances are very high we will also loathe our neighbor.  Our glorious God does indeed love us, but the things that were funny when we were 3 years old will get our hide tanned when we are 10. We laugh at jokes, but honestly, if we really think about it, we’re typically laughing at someone else’s misfortune. i wonder if maybe in all things which we find funny at someone else’s expense, don’t have some root of bitterness in own heart. Our God desires we grow up and be mature believers, rightly dividing the word of truth (1 Timothy 2:15), being strong in His Name and in the power of His might (Eph6:10), comforting others in all their suffering, since we ourselves are being comforted by God (2 Corinthians 1:4). It is very difficult to be mature when we are busy condemning ourselves in the mirror.

In Hebrews 12:13, the translators used the words “turned out of the way”, but a better picture is more than just on the wrong path, but more in a medical sense, as in someone with a dislocated arm or leg. Our God is growing us into people who are willing to have the necessary honest conversation with ourselves and our friends which, by the very nature of honesty, makes straight paths for our feet and puts back in joint that which has become dislocated. Be in Christ mature believers who in character and life resemble God who brought us out, sharing His attributes with us as children resemble their parents.  Let us walk as mature believers who are governed by the Spirit of God and live at rest in His righteousness, peace, and joy (Romans 14:17).

The truth is, i believe many, many people have a poor perspective of themselves.  As our conscience looks back at us from the mirror in our homes, let us bless, not curse, ourselves in that mirror, telling ourselves the truth with kindness and grace but also reminding ourselves to whom we belong for the strengthening of our tired arms and the confirmation of our feeble knees, stirring up love and good works (Hebrews 10:24).  Be strong and courageous! That is a prophetic declaration, one of “has become” and “is becoming”. Be strong and courageous!

1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.…”

Just because God knows something does not mean He ordained it that it should be so. We complain, why would God do thus-n-such to me. Or, if He knew this was going to happen, He could have stopped it but He won’t. Or my favorite, If God loves us so much, why would He treat us this way?

i’ve heard those wounded, disappointed statements often, so i’m not making this up. For example:

A man and a woman own a car which needs approximately $600 of work done to it. Oh it runs, but it’s getting worse by the week. They don’t have $600 and they are just barely getting by every month. They can’t afford not one more penny out of their budget. They are in such a spot and have no clue what to do. They have prayed and asked God what to do, they are consistent tithers according to church law. They are good people in the eyes of the world, just in a difficult season for the time being.

One Sunday afternoon after church, the man and woman decide to go for a ride. They rode up town, they rode down town, they rode all over the place and happen to pass a large car dealership. Suddenly, there sprung into their minds the bright idea to stop and dream a little, because dreams were God’s idea and there was nothing wrong with dreaming some. In fact, playing the “what if” game in the car lot seemed like a relief from the stormy season they were presently in.

While they were looking at the cars, a salesman came out and struck up a conversation. He asked them, if they could, which car would they like to have, if they could? They assured him it wouldn’t matter which car because they couldn’t afford to fix the one they had, much less get a new one. The sales man laughed softly saying he understood what that was like. They liked him, he was a very friendly fellow with those “you-can-trust-me blue eyes”. The salesman told them the dealership was having a special that weekend and told them to just dream a little and “let’s just run the numbers, just for fun and see what happens.” So, “just for fun”, the fellow and his wife agreed to step into the sales office.

The salesman showed them how much they’d get for their old car and how much their monthly payments would be. With a warm tone in his voice, he told them if they got that car they wanted, especially now that the dealer was having a special that weekend,  they would not have to fix their old one. They could drive around in style in the new one, then he asked them, “Can’t you just see it?” They could envision themselves in that nice car, no cares, driving around smiling, and all things would be well. He asked again, “If i can can get my manager to approve the monthly payments, would you be willing to take your dreaming seriously, because, afterall, it is the deal of a life time?”

While the salesman was gone, the man and woman prayed earnestly, “If this is you Lord, we pray that those numbers would be approved, and by that we’ll know it is You who have arranged this entire miraculous event.” What they failed to realize is that a bankrupt felon could get credit in their state, and OF COURSE the salesman was going to come back, smiling, saying excitedly, “He said it’s a go!” The salesman did exactly that, he even joined them in praising God for the miracle.

They signed the papers, left their old car behind, and drove away in a new car, thinking, “It must be God! It must be God!” Singing, and being joyful at the miracle of the Lord.

Two months later, as they began to realize they were going bankrupt and they were going to lose the car because they couldn’t make the car payments, and lose everything else in the process, they had become angry and bitter, and in a fit of frustration they cried out, sobbing, “How could you do this to us God?? Why would you treat us this way? Don’t you love us?!?”

How is it that when things are well with us, we are so confident that God loves us beyond our wildest dreams, but as soon as things become a struggle and we began to sweat, and get weary, suddenly we wonder where God is and if He loves us anymore? Did He suddenly change and become someone unsteady and unreliable, or was that us?

Did the Lord do this to them? Who is responsible for the circumstances? What do you think they could have done and should do in light of their circumstances?

Did God really do this to them? No. Is the results of their actions really the active judgment of God against them or is it the passive results of poor choosing and they did it to themselves? Be honest.

If you were determined to marry the wrong person, did God do that to you? No. And even though you may be determined to marry the wrong person, the Lord will not abandon you. He’ll go with you through all your trouble, and will not leave you to your misery. Just because He knows we’re going to crash doesn’t mean He determined it should be so. i say, God’s knowing is not His ordination that it should be so. God is not cruel, ever. Again, just because He knew you were going to crash does not mean He said, “Make it so.”

The Lord is good, and all the time God is good. Not just does good things, not just knows good information, He is more than simply pleasant and reassuring, but He is the very personification of Goodness. He is perfectly good because He is perfect in every way and does not change to anything other than good as if He were like clouds in the sky, always changing shape. He is perfectly consistent, perfectly love, perfectly kind, perfectly generous, and perfectly good, all the time and does not fade.

Let us consider carefully, being honest, accountable and transparent about ourselves and our lives. His heart towards us is love in all aspects of our lives. Let us not let allow ourselves to slid backwards into blaming God, the very person, the only person in all eternity who loves us so much He gave His life for us.

What do you think?

We are coming into our inheritance as God has designed it. Many of us are beginning to wake up and realize the power and authority we have in Christ, and more than a few are beginning to walk in that power and authority. When we speak to the weather, do we fully expect the weather to not only hear but to obey, even if we whisper? Or do we say, “Storm be gone, in the Name of Jesus!”, in our most authoritative voice, but underneath we are still thinking “I hope this works.” You may find that to be adventurous doctrine, but just because it’s outside your comfort zone, doesn’t mean it’s outside God’s comfort zone.

So, there comes a question:   What do we expect of God? What are our expectations of Him?

He is God. Do we expect little of Him? …. even though He is God Almighty, Most Vehement, Self-Revelational, and Self Existent. He’s the one who has loved us from before time and loves the company of His people…God who had the character of the cross worked in His Heart from before the foundations of the universe, what do you expect from Him? It is not like our King is small and pitiful and is unable to do all, and more, than we would ever dream possible… and He has spoken to us … A LOT! Is it God not speaking or us not hearing? Do we expect Him to show up, or do we expect Him to only “dribble” a little of His presence around just to keep the hamsters spinning on their wheels? When we ask God questions, do we expect Him to answer us?

We expect a reply from our friends when we speak to them or ask them a question… in fact, we expect a full sensory encounter with people and it upsets us greatly when they do NOT respond … do we expect a full sensory encounter with God?

Sometimes we get little because we expect little, not always, but i suspect more often than we think. Do we expect God to keep His promise of peace, or do we mostly only hope He will extend us some peace, moments with a lack of pressure or violence? Do we expect God to provide for us, or do we mostly hope He will? Do we mostly hope God will give us courage for the fight, or do we expect Him to give us Strength as He has said He would?

What do we expect of God? What are our expectations of Him? i find i expect more from people than i do God, and i’m just wrong about that. i’m convinced that when we put our expectations and hope in men and ministries to validate and approve us, God becomes obligated to show us their shortcomings. The Lord alone validates and approves us, not men, but we expect of men far too easily.

The Lord is so much more capable than people, and more willing, but yet i expect people to respond and mostly only hope God will respond. When i turn on the light switch i expect the light to come on, shouldn’t we have a greater expectation of God than we do of the light switch? He is greater and more sure than a light switch, but yet i find i have a greater expectation of people and physical things than of God, and i’d like to turn my thinking around about that. i can not think of a reason why i would not have a full encounter with my Father everyday, except it is my own unbelief. i feel like most of the time i merely hope He shows up instead of being surprised if He didn’t. i expect the weather to change when i speak to it (and that’s true, i do and have been speaking to the weather as the Lord tells me to, successfully for many years now. It just seems natural to me). i truly expect the Lord will hear me and will answer me (that’s another one that seems natural to me). It is a natural thing for a father to respond to his kids, so it should be the most remote idea in our heads that God will not respond…in fact, to me, there should be a better chance that the moon really is made of cheese than the chance that God would NOT respond to our call.  i want the supernatural to become my natural, and i want to walk in “God’s natural”, and i want to stop being so surprised at the supernatural…i’ll never cease to be totally thrilled at being with God, but i want His “natural” to be my “natural”.

If the Lord prompts us and we speak to the cancer to be gone, and it shrivels and disappears, that should be normal circumstances, and we should be amazed if it DID NOT shrivel and disappear, not amazed if it did. What do you expect from God?

i got a call one day that our church was buying some property, it needed surveying, and part of the special deal with the surveyor was that some of the young men would come and help mark the property lines. i wondered why we needed to survey the land considering the county already had a plat defining the boundaries, and in case you didn’t know, a platt is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. And yes, the paperwork on file actually said “platt” which is old English for our spelling today of “plat”. Old English? Say what?? i soon found out that the last person to own the property was one family, who had owned it for 140 years, and before that the only other name on the deed was … the King of England. Oh. Yea, i’d certainly agree the property needed to be re-surveyed considering the plat on file at the court house was still in Old English, with the corners shown as “the big tree down by the creek”, and “at the turn in the creek past the mill”, which by today’s standards, wouldn’t, by any means, hold up as a good definition of property boundaries.

It was hot, the brush and trees were so thick we had to machete our way through the woods. There were black berry canes as thick as a man’s wrist and way over our heads with 1” thorns to match, not to mention the terrifying ground hornets nest big as a large watermelon, a wide variety of blood sucking insects, and the occasional snake. It was quite the adventure!

As we worked all day i would occasionally hear the surveyor steady calling loudly to someone far away who was holding a string, and a plumb bob over a small stake in the ground. He’d say “Left! Left! Hold! Right! Hold!” Then he would yell loudly, “HUP!” When he yelled, “HUP!”, which sounded like a dog bark, the person with the string and plumb bob was supposed to let the plumb bob down to the top of the stake and drive a small nail right where the point touched. Ugh. So tedious! Being curious, i asked the man why was he being so very precise. His answer was … that if we were off by 1/16^th of an inch at the zero point, which is where he had the transit and tripod, by the time we got out 400 yards or more, what was originally a 1/16^th of an inch error would be several feet wrong.

Well, that set me thinking. How often in my life do i fudge a little at my zero point and then wonder, months or years later, how life got so… off.. center? The problem isn’t so much being off center, God can easily remedy that, the problem is more that i am willing to cheat and lie a little back here in order to get what i want, not need, but want, while taking no thought of the long game and it’s results at a distance, there. Most of the time, the cheating and lying was within myself about my own thinking and eventually, my actions. i would tell myself, “i’m not actually hurting anyone”, until the Lord asked me straight up, “What is your idea of “hurt”, who is “anyone”, and aren’t you a somebody?”

Dishonesty is dishonesty, and cheating is cheating regardless of whether it’s 1/16^th of an inch or 400 yards. Yes, of course, the Lord forgives us our sins, but He also insists on us doing something about our thinking which gets us stumbling around to begin with. More than a few people say if they saw a nickel on your table they wouldn’t feel bad if they put it in their pocket, but they would never pocket a $10 dollar bill from the same table. So, let me see if i’ve got this right, you’d steal a nickel but you wouldn’t steal $10. We’ve established that it’s still stealing whether it’s a nickel or a $10 bill. Regardless of the denomination, there still exists a morals and ethics issue at heart.

Being honest means being honest, Proverbs 22:21, “be honest and speak the truth“, not cheating, Leviticus 19:13, “‘You shall not cheat your neighbor“,

or lying, Colossians 3:9, “Lie not one to another…”. Not to God, to yourself nor your neighbor. If we are willing to fudge stuff at our zero point, it is highly likely that months, or even years out, our error is staggering. We might say to ourselves, “Oh, it’s just a little bit.” Is it really? Think about that. The entire root idea of honesty means to bring something into being with the consequence that its existence is a certainty. When someone says “Trust me”, they are asking us to take what they say as the truth and a certainty. How many of us constantly play at the edge of this, stealing a nickel, but not, outright, stealing the $10 spot? How about when we tell ourselves we NEED that new car, but the truth is, truly, we only want it really bad, because i WANT it? We’re willing to go into serious debt to get it, and we lie to ourselves saying our “want” is now justified to being a need. Don’t get me wrong here, there’s nothing wrong with “want”… so long as we’re not willing to become “compromised” in order to accomplish it. The problem isn’t the want or desire, the problem is object of that want or desire.

Or how about changing the tense of our words so the other person thinks a problem isn’t in the “recent now” but actually, only happened long ago and the issues have been resolved. We say, “trust me, it’s the truth”, when really it’s not the truth, we are being manipulative. The error isn’t out at the 400 yard mark, the problem is at our zero point. Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

If you’re too busy, remember, you’re the one who said “yes”. Why do you keep doing it to yourself?

We invited a man and his wife to eat with us one evening. We sat on the patio, the table cloth of bright sunflowers covered the handy dandy little fold out we used for eating outside. The evening was warm and was increasing toward it’s usual fading, ever deepening blue as the day moved on to becoming night. Most amazing was the towering hollyhocks and delphiniums which were at their peak. They were just blindingly beautiful. It was a delicious time of day with the smell of flowers and fresh cut grass. Oh and the great food.

The fellow and his wife had been in some real dire straights in their marriage and there was a constant brooding feel of finality, meaning he felt the relationship was in it’s last gasps for air.

As the conversation rolled this way and that, of course, we began to talk about honest things, real feelings, and the course of life which led us each as individuals to be where we were. At one point the man said that so much of his life he felt like God was always dangling a carrot in front of him, and he had begun to believe we were all like a hamster on a wheel, just running, and running, sweating and breathing hard, but never getting anywhere. Immediately, my wife held up her hand like she was calling the world to a halt, and with a bright smile declared, “I’m not a hamster on a wheel.” i followed suit with a chuckle and smile saying, “Hey now, i’m not a hamster either.” It was silent for moment, and we just let the silence hang on purpose.

Are we hamsters on a wheel? From your perspective, do you really believe God is so cruel as to dribble a little of His presence around just to watch all the hamsters run on the wheel, for the purpose of having a good laugh at the stupid little animals, mindlessly running and running, eyes bugging out of their heads, feet just flying? Does that sound like God to you? You may feel that way, but is it really the Father’s heart?

Well then, i guess i should ask, have you read the Bible? i know that sounds silly to ask, but did you read it like a lover looking for their beloved, or were you more just reading it to be able to say, “i read my bible today”? i realize sometimes we are reading to be reading, but by far and large, it’s not just reading but how we are reading. The Lord didn’t say He loved us, then died and rose from the dead for us, and daily reminds us a thousand different ways that He loves us only to treat us like He hates us. Some folks seem to think God is just standing over them with a big spiked club, waiting to pound the blood out of them at the slightest infraction. We’re not a mosquito that’s about to get reduced to a smudge on Gods arm. Is that really the Father’s heart? And if you think “yes”, considering you had the courage to aim your finger at God, also have the courage to ask yourself the question, “How did i come to that conclusion, and why do i think it’s a good idea?” Be brave to investigate to gather the right information about Him. God confirms His word, so i must ask, what are your confirmations concerning what you hold as true? God confirms His word in signs and wonders, Mark 16:20. He confirms His word in fulfillment of scripture, Isaiah 44:26. He confirms His word in witnesses and testimony, 2 Corinthians 13:1, and He confirms His word through His unwavering faithfulness, Numbers 23:19.

The whole idea of circumspection is to take a 360 degree view of things, taking all things into account, and coming to a conclusion. The basic meaning  is “to look around.” Other very similar words are prudent and cautious, though circumspect implies a careful consideration of all circumstances and a desire to avoid mistakes and bad consequences. We can resent God if we want, your business is your own, but let’s be circumspect to know His heart for us, and not simply operate out of opinion. i heard a man say once, it’s awfully hard to hear God when we’ve got an opinion.

God’s heart is towards us, He wants us to win at life. His desire is that we grow up, be responsible, act kindly toward ourselves and those around us, be hospitable, and ultimately, to take Him seriously, trusting Him. He has never lied to us, cheated us, manipulated us or brought us up by fraud and false hope. It’s not even in His heart to be that way. Where do we get the idea God is just a tooth gritting storm just waiting to pound us to dust?

While i’m pouting because i didn’t get what i want, when i wanted, or how i wanted, in order to be circumspect, i’ve got to remember Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” In this country we have gotten the idea of “Have it your way” as a way of life. i also need to take into consideration Romans 8:33 in that no one can take us to court before God and win a case against us, because God himself is the one who has declared us righteous. No one can condemn us to hell on judgment day from Romans 8:34, and no one and no thing can separate us from the love of God. Does that sound like someone who says they love us but treat us like they hate us? No. Not at all.

Time slips away everyday for all of us. As we sit under the stars on the deck of a wonderful cafe at the end of Old Field Road, time is ticking, the sun rises and sets, the days come and go, moments and occasions click past us regardless of how much we all wish it would just stand still for a minute or three. i can’t count the number of times i’ve wished it would just be Saturday again.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the late evening, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River.

What do we do with our time? How do we “spend” our moments? We all have time and moments to spend as we determine, they are valuable and whatever we choose to spend them on is a one time purchase, whether precious or frivolous, if you know what i mean. That time, in that moment, is here and gone again. So, the question was, how do you spend your time and moments? Chasing our kids, making meals, praying, arguing, deciding, thinking or maybe trying not to think about things, wondering, wishing … hoping. Maybe you spend the bulk of your time wishing you were doing something other than what you’re doing. Time is ticking by us and i’ve wondered how many of us seem to be unfocused and flat-lining in the middle of life. In desperation we come to the surface for air just long enough to convulsively gasp for breath, wishing someone would throw us a life preserver or pull us into a rescue boat.

Are we investing only in ourselves or have some of us realized that if we invest our time in others we, indeed, HAVE invested in ourselves.

The idea here is not to present a huge list of ponderous questions, truly, i think maybe most have a list of questions which completely out weigh our list of answers if we put some thought into it. i heard someone say the other day, is your problem actually your problem, or is your attitude ABOUT your problem really the problem? Consequently, is our list of answers r-e-a-l-l-y all that sufficient, or are they answers God has extended us except they are simply not the ones we want to hear?

Maybe we have more answers than we appreciate, but they just don’t fit our agenda. Time is ticking, the days are moving past us, and at some point we’re going to have to move out with God regardless of whether we have answers or not, taking Him to BE the answer, not just Him giving us answers which fit our agenda. Knowing about God and knowing Him are two very different things.

What do we do when we seem to have no answers? Please take note that i used the word, “seem” there. It’s all well and good to say, “the just shall live by faith” from Romans 1:17, or 2 Corinthians 5:7 “we live by faith and not by sight”, but when the poo really hits the fan and we’ve actually got to DO those scriptures, it might be a very different story for many. Having wisdom and DOING wisdom are very different you know. Like admiring Jesus is not the same as following Jesus, being arrogant is not the same as confidence which, at first glance, may look very similar, and being indifferent can easily be misread as having peace.

In 1987 a close friend of mine lost his job. He and his wife prayed, a lot, confessing they were people of faith and were standing firm. A short while later, they lost one car. They continued to pray and tell their friends they were people of faith and were standing firm. Then his wife lost her job, money was thin and getting oh so much thinner all the time, but they were standing firm, standing on the word of God, and rightly so. They were people of faith and were confident God would deliver them. “The just shall live by faith” they told themselves every day, knowing it to be true, so they clung to Jesus even more tightly.

Then the creme de la creme came, the house payments were so far behind, it appeared they would be losing their home. They prayed constantly for help from the Lord, they knew they were speaking to the one and only person who could help. They began to feel like they were in the “trials of Job”, worry nipped at their heels, gnawed at any surety, and doubt left them messages on their phone. Of course let’s not leave out the well meaning church folks who asked them if there was some unconfessed sin in their lives. Yea, that’s irritating isn’t it? Funny how church people think there’s likely something wrong with you before considering maybe the Lord was at the helm and it was simply a trial of faith. “You wouldn’t be going through all this if you were right with God.” That is wholly untrue and very unkind.

It is hard to not be frustrated when there seems to be no answers.

One evening, the youngest son went to a youth rally and gave his life to the Lord. The boy began to pray for his family, a job for his dad, for his mother to sleep and be at peace, and for his older sibling to come home because he had fallen in with a very troubling crowd. Wouldn’t you know it, things started to turn around. His dad got a job, the mortgage company miraculously extended them forbearance, his mom stopped looking like worry was hanging on her shoulders like a weight, and in a couple months, the older brother decided the fast crowd he was hanging with just wasn’t a good idea. It all worked out well, but they knew something after the trial which they didn’t know before: it is the truth, the just really do live by faith, and when unfortunate circumstances hit the fan in our lives, we can really and truly trust God, even when we don’t have any answers. Most especially when we don’t have any answers.

Gosh do we need answers, and the world around us does indeed give us some answers, but in the end they aren’t the answers we really need. Here’s the problem with all the answers we are being given: If you don’t know or understand the questions, the answers don’t make any sense. If i were to look at you and say, “42”. You might ponder a moment, then hopefully ask, “42 what?” Ah-ha! Exactly. i just gave you an answer but seeing as how you had no context because you didn’t know the question, my answer didn’t make any sense. Now, not only do we need to know the question so we understand the answer, we also need to know HOW to apply the answer. Just because we know the question and possess the answer, doesn’t mean we know what to do with it. We need wisdom, knowledge and understanding, and there is only one source for the three. God. You may say, “My doctor has answers and i didn’t have to go to God.” True, but where did those medical professionals get the ideas to pose the questions which then led to their conclusions? No one is smart enough to do life by themselves, and we need God to spark our dormant flame for the “right” answers.

The Lord truly has given us many answers to our looming questions, but i think many see God’s answers as insufficient somehow. We DO have answers, but often the answers just don’t seem to fit our agenda as far as we can see, nor do they seem to go as we have imagined within ourselves. Here’s a better question then: Are His answers insufficient, or is it more that we simply don’t understand, and rather than be honest and say we don’t understand, we say His answer was insufficient? Oh it wasn’t me who didn’t understand, it was God who wouldn’t tell me, and that’s not true, at, all. That’s what i call the theory of shifting responsibility. i say it’s horrible weather. Is it horrible, or is it that i don’t prefer it. Weather is weather, and no one decided it was horrible but me. Actually, i’ve decided there isn’t any such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

Sometimes, when the conflicts in life are so thick, all the paint on our picture seems to have been blasted away and we’re down to bare canvas, it does qualify as suffering. When we put our foot on the brake pedal and there’s the hideous sound of metal-on-metal, life isn’t simple. i don’t know much about suffering except these few things.

1 – suffering reduces everything to it’s lowest common denominator.

2 – it adds meaning and dimension to even the smallest things.

3 – suffering reduces culture to a classless society, it levels the playing field, meaning, when the country is out of food, everyone is suffering from hungry, rich, poor, big and small.

And 4 – suffering teaches us to see the suffering around us, it is literally an eye opener to see beyond ourselves. The things we thought were important somehow lose their priority, the value of our social standing looses ground, priorities change quickly and suddenly God becomes VERY important. Faith is what you do when you have no answers.

Hebrews 11:6 “… without faith it is impossible to please God”. Faith is not having conclusions. Faith is not being qualified. In our western version of Christianity we are basically fed a line of thinking which says “If you have faith, you will have answers and conclusions.” Ummm, no, that doesn’t hold water, if you know what i mean. Some seem to think that if they pray loud and long enough they can, somehow, “make” God do something other than what He’s doing. We want our prayers answered when we read books on prayer, listen to a message or podcast on prayer, or talk to people known as prayer warriors. A LOT of people pound the floor demanding and declaring of God, trusting that the strength and passion of their declarations may be sufficient to make God do what they want, as if His answer to prayer were contingent on how much emotional energy they can summon. We need to understand that the Lord is God and He alone is sovereign. His plan is bigger than any one player on the field. We ought not to come to God imagining we are somehow entitled and God owes us something. No, we are powerless to “make” God do anything, He is not indebted to us in any fashion, what-so-ever, nor do we have that kind of power or influence. Faith does not mean having answers or conclusions.

Some think if you have faith you will prosper and never suffer, and if you are poor and are suffering, obviously you don’t possess the faith to rise above it all, as if you could run down to Walmart and by a couple cans of “Instant faith – just add water”. Some even say, ‘if you are sick or poor, it is your own miserable lack of faith which keeps you there.’ Friends, that is cruel and untrue.

Suffering is as much a part of Christian living as not suffering and we are always measuring each other as to who is more sinful, more blessed, closer to God (or not) than we are. Always measuring according to who has the most answers. “So-and-so must be more sinful than i am because they have way more problem’s than i ever thought of having. i don’t see what could be wrong with them, but look at them, things aren’t well with them, and things are well with me, therefore, i must have more faith and favor with God and less sin in my life than my neighbors.”    Astoundingly, many believe that and it isn’t true … at … all.

The Jews of Luke 13 seemed to feel that bad things happened to bad people of poor faith, and good things happen to good people who have lots of faith. This is called “retributive theology”, which says “If i am good to God He will be good to me, and if things don’t go well for me then surely i must have done something wrong,” or do-good, get-good, do-bad, get-bad. Jesus said that is absolutely not true. Job was a righteous man according to God in Job 1:8 and there was not another man on earth like him, yet he suffered many things. Jesus was and is the most righteous man there ever has been, or ever will be, and He suffered many things. Was it that those people were sinful or due to their lack of faith there was suffering? Did Abraham leave not knowing where he was going or in what direction because he didn’t have his faith all worked up in order to get the level of answers and conclusions he thought he needed? Or was God just being ambivalent with him, jerking Abraham around? It wasn’t like that at all. Sadly, in our present society we are trained like that. Make good grades, everyone likes you, make poor grades then no one wants to be your friend. If we are successful at work we are promoted, and if we are poor at our job, not only are we not promoted but we may not be allowed to work there anymore. But God doesn’t operate that way, at, all.

Faith is not having answers and just because you know stuff doesn’t mean you are someone of faith. Knowing Bible information and scripture addresses is not the same as having a relationship with Jesus.

In Hebrews 11, did Sarah have to wait for 10 years after it was prophesied to her that she would have a child because she didn’t have any faith or because she was sinful? Was Watchman Nee poor and desperate because he didn’t have any faith? Did the early heroes of the faith become martyred because they didn’t have the faith to escape persecution and they somehow deserved to die because they were faithless and sinful? Do we not have answers to important questions because we don’t have faith? Maybe we do have answers, we just don’t like them. Or are we not able to come to some of life’s necessary conclusions or know what to do many times because we don’t have any faith? Many times we don’t know what God is doing, but we are required to trust Him until His purpose and direction comes clear.

Many times we don’t know the rules and are asked to trust God until the boundaries are made clear, and they will be made distinct. i don’t understand how God is right many times, but i’m willing to wait because i believe God is right in what so ever He does.

Faith is not having answers.

Being willing to wait in the interim space of having no answer IS faith, and in that space of waiting with no answers and no conclusions,

God creates faith. Catch the vision here: sometimes, waiting is like exhaling and waiting too long to inhale, and there is a growing ache and urgency which begins in our body. Yes, i know this ache well, but the Lord will give us breath for the conclusions we need to resolve our dilemma.

The instruction of much of church-ianity tells us that if we have faith we will have our certitudes if we use the standard religious formulas. Faith is not a paint-by-number set. There are so many books which outline prosperity in a step-by-step, “How to live by faith” manual. It all maybe a great read, but when you’re the one on the boat with Jesus, there’s water coming over the sides, the wind is howling, the Master seems no where to be found, and in your most authoritative voice telling your neighbor to “just have faith” is almost cruel and cliché.

Jobs counselors were NOT willing to live in the space of no answers and no conclusions, and as of today, many many people equate “having answers” with “having faith”.

Jobs friends or counselors told Job in Job 8:20 that if he would “just admit he was a corrupt and rotten guy that in no time God would give him blessing on blessing and he’d be singing and smiling again.” But Job refused to violate his integrity by admitting to something that wasn’t true just so he wouldn’t have to suffer, just so he wouldn’t have to keep trusting God even though he didn’t have any answers. We will not gain faith or joy by compromising our integrity. i myself have, before the Lord, admitted to things i never did in hopes of stopping the storm i was in, yet the storm raged on.   and a fix based on my timetable, i wanted things to change, and i was more willing to focus on how horrible the situation was rather than focusing on the goodness of God. Even in the storm, set your eyes on Jesus, not the storm, because as long as you stare at the storm, the storm is all you’ll see, and the more you see it, the more it sweeps you out to sea. Even at that, God has not left you.

Having faith doesn’t mean having answers, but more being willing to trust God and live in that space of time without answers and without conclusions. It’s easy to glibbly say, “just have faith” until you’re the one in the hot seat.

In that space of waiting, between an exhale and an inhale, in the

space of no answers and no conclusions, it is always so very uncomfortable, and many times it feels like dying. But trust me, the sky will clear. Storms are only here for a short while and then they move on, the skies will clear and stars will come out again. You’ll see.

Let us trust God who is completely trustworthy. He is faithful and righteous, and even when we don’t know the answers, God is still with us who believe on Christ, and we can be assured that our answers will come at the right time, the best time, in God-time, and it will be enough. Think about it

Actually, we do have an answer: Jesus. He is THE answer … i wonder what it will take for the rest of our nation to confess He is Lord? Truly, i’m trying not to think about that. i suspect it will be a very unpleasant time in history before they bow their knees.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, cool acoustic jazz and contemplative conversation, brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, the always amazing Andrea at Viva coffee house in Tucson Arizona, Area 22 Guitars, Paul Powers, the ever so talented Jerry at Werner Graphics, and Trinity Bakers where there’s always something good in the oven.

Be still in the time of waiting, take advantage of that time rather than resenting having to wait. Jesus really is the answer, everyday, from the beginning to the end, even when we’re down to brass tacks and bare metal, Jesus is the answer.

It is God’s timing that we are between an exhale and an inhale, trust him, He is building extraordinary faith in you! Step out in faith this week. Ask the Lord how to get closer to Him and to know Him better. Drive carefully, pray for your friends and neighbors, have faith and trust God. Meet me next time and we’ll pickup at the feet of Jesus where we left off. Amen.