It’s happening again. It’s the Christmas season (it lasts until the first week of January here in the Philippines); my husband is away on a trip while I try to distract myself from feeling lonely and helpless. From somewhere in the back of my mind, I observe that these times of isolation and solitude bring to fore the deepest thoughts and realizations. And this time is no different.
I went back to what I wrote at the start of the year to help me reflect on God and the lessons he has taught me in 365 days. It was not difficult to see that God has poured out on us, and on me specifically, some very huge and impossible (from a human being’s standpoint) challenges. And just a few weeks ago, the impossible literally stared me in the face. I was given a God-sized task and only three people to handle it, myself included.
Without going into all the details, God finally decided it was time to grant me the business I had been asking and preparing for since I graduated from college (I’m 37 years old, so it was a pretty long wait), and gave me my first major client – a 100-year old international travel and destination management group of 75 people, all coming to the Philippines from the Asia-pacific region, and all expecting to be served and given the best teambuilding activities in one day by little ole’ me and two others. I did not promote the business – the business literally came to me from the boss himself – God. He probably thought it was high time I got hands-on training!
The rest happened in a frenzied blur. Even as I shared the whole stressful yet exciting experience afterwards with my sister and some very good friends who prayed for us, I still remain in awe at how impossible the whole task was and how God took over from the very start and showed us who was in charge. After all, it had to be a God-sized challenge for God alone to handle.
After that experience, more impossibilities began pouring in, one after another. Prior to that, though, God reminded me of the many impossible dreams that he already granted to me and my family. My husband and I are facing a lot of impossible tasks, challenges and dreams this 2007. And my reply to all these is, bring them on! We have the almighty God on our side, and nothing is impossible with him. But there is one thing we need to do – we need to believe.
This truth literally jumped at me everywhere I turned the past few weeks and even today. Let me quote a couple of them:
“We have a God who delights in impossibilities.” – Andrew Murray (after I wrote an entry in my The Prayer of Jabez Journal)
“Our God specializes in working through normal people who believe in a supernormal God who will do His work through them.” – The Prayer of Jabez (also in my journal)
“The Christian life isn’t difficult – it is impossible. If don’t know that, we will try to do things ourselves. Faith is not necessary when we think we can do it ourselves. Faith comes along when we realize that we cannot do it on our own.” – Joseph Garlingen (which I found serendipitously just below my article in the Connections’ most recent issue)
After mulling over these, more affirmations followed through the movie The Polar Express. I know, I know, it’s a Christmas movie for kids, and I was probably even more skeptical than most simply because of Santa, the elves and the commercialism of it all. But I guess today was the best time for me to see it, on HBO, alone in the house as I ate my breakfast with tears streaming down my cheeks. Take away all the other symbols and characters and you will get to the heart and message of the movie.
Just when I was beginning to wonder if all the miracles really happened to me all these months (yes, the questions do come at your lowest moments) and if God will do more, this line from the little unbelieving boy who grew up rang loud and clear: “Now that I’m older, the bell (referring to the lone bell that fell from Santa’s reindeer which he gave to this boy for Christmas) still rings for me as for all who truly believe.”
Does the bell of faith still ring loud in the ears of our hearts? When did we all grow up and stop believing? When did we stop having that child-like trust in our Father? With our God being the God of the impossible, we need to keep believing and trusting in him. If faith can only move a molehill, then it is not faith at all. We need to have God-sized tasks and mountain-sized faith for God to step in and do the impossible.
The Word of God is rife with faith lessons and reminders. “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7); “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11); “According to your faith will it be done to you.” (Matthew 9:29); “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1); “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) – All quoted from the NIV.
How does our faith measure up? Do we still insist on seeing before believing? Do we only dream small dreams and pray for what we can achieve on our own? When all things look hopeless and negative circumstances surround us, does the loud peal of faith become a faint chime? Have we lost sight of God’s greatness and awesome power?
Let us ask God for the manifestation of his awesome power in our lives and the faith to believe that it is. Battle-scarred and soul-weary, we Christian soldiers need to be reminded of who’s in charge and who has already won the battle for us, Jesus Christ. Let us start believing again in the impossible and continue living with Everest-sized faith in Him who started it all and will finish it all. Have a blessed New Year.
Purple Thoughts 