Faith Holds You

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I like Soren Kirkdgaard’s little parable about a place called "Duckland.” It was Sunday morning in Duckland and all the ducks came dutifully to church, waddling through the doors and down the aisle into their pews where they shook their tail feathers and squatted down. When all were well-settled and the hymns were sung, the duck minister waddled to his pulpit, opened the Duck Bible, and read aloud, “Ducks! You have wings and with wings you fly like eagles. You can soar into the sky. Use your wings!” 

It was a marvelous, elevating duck reading from the Duck Bible, and so all the ducks quacked their assent with a hearty, “Amen!” And then they plopped down from their pews and waddled home.

Every Sunday we come and hear God’s Word and during the week, we read the Bible and have quiet time with God. The question that this story about Duckland presents is—how have we responded to that Word? What in our days and life is different because of the Word? Has our faith been an active and busy thing because of what God has said to us? 

James asks the question, “Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying that you have faith if you do not prove it by your actions? That kind of faith doesn’t save anyone…Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all—it is dead and useless” (James 2:14,17 NLT)

Faith summons us to respond to God’s Word

Faith calls us to trust God, even when it is illogical to do so.

Faith is persistent, even when it doesn’t make sense.

Faith believes, even when there is no proof.

Faith calls us to obedience, even when we don’t feel like it. 

Our journey through life can be difficult, have twists and turns we didn’t expect, take us on paths we had never planned to take, cause us to despair and wonder where on earth this will lead us, force us to make decisions that are not easy to make and then second guess those decisions. 

Faith is trusting in the promises of God. When God makes a promise, it doesn’t matter how weird that promise might be—like telling geriatric Abraham and Sarah they would be parents, God intends to keep it. When God says Jesus has forgiven all our sin, God means all our sin. Faith simply takes God at his word.

During the days of the bombing of London, a father holding his small son by the hand, ran through the thick smoke of their burning house out into the front yard. There was a deep crater that offered shelter, so the father jumped into the dark hole and held up his arms for his son to follow. The smoke was so thick, the boy could not see his father, and he was terrified. The father called out, “Jump” and the boy replied, “I can’t see you!”

The father looking up, saw his son through the smoke silhouetted against the glow of the burning buildings, and called out, “But I can see you. Jump!” The boy jumped because he trusted his father. Faith trusts God to help, not because we can see, but because we are seen, not because we know, but because we are known.

Faith believes the dear promise that we are God’s beloved children and that God will always be watching over us as we travel the ups and downs, the challenges and the uncertainties of life’s journey.

My friends, use your wings!!

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