By Betty Slade
PREVIEW Columnist
For years, I lived in the shadow of what might come: a phone call, a knock on the door or an inconsiderate stance. I waited for the other shoe to drop. Something I knew was coming, but just didn’t know when or how.
The problem with this line of thinking is that it can be embedded with fear, something that has taken me years of faith to combat.
Faith vs. fear. A dichotomy founded by a god of love or the one who will do anything to destroy us. The outcome, the effect of the cause. We can either be renewed or broken down.
At no time has any of this been clearer to me. And as a culmination of my understanding, I believe that we are nearing the beginning of the end.
Interesting how such words can cause some to embrace hope while blindsiding others. Words that can cause us to stand firm or to wallow in despair.
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” But do we really hold these words to be true today? Can we even grasp the fullness of such a statement? I have come to the realization that walking by faith is to walk in the present. If we walk by sight, we do so based on the effects of something that has already happened, an aftermath.
I get the boldness of that thought. It is almost too abstract for me to fully grasp. But, take the vastness of the universe as an example. When we see the brightness of a star, are we seeing it for what it is? Based on the speed of light, what we are seeing is something that happened long, long ago.
I believe Jesus Christ is the true God -— certainly, a truth that is beyond anything I can see. Am I to just wait until that truth can manifest into something that I can see in order to believe? Or, do I live by faith, waiting for the one who lives beyond what I can see?
We live in a visible world. Do we believe it because we can see it? Or do we believe it as the effect of something unseen, having a faith in the one who created it?
Walking in faith, believing in a perfect loving God is enough to cast away my fear. I no longer have to wait in questionable anticipation for the other shoe to fall, but to believe that God has something incredible waiting for me when it does.
Final brushstroke: We see things every day that cause us to ask why, or how, or even when. But we can rest on the belief that we have been prepared for such a time as this. Not because we see evidence of it, but because we believe in a God of love, the one who will deliver us beyond anything we can know.
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