walking my faith
11/21/10
I don’t always say everything I’m thinking in (Sunday School), because I already feel like I probably talk too much. And I do have a fear of being offending to other people, or other people just thinking of me as being… mouthy, I guess. What I didn’t bring up today was, “What are the things that we want to run away from, instead of living in that moment? What are we not facing or not walking through?”
It’s not just the big issues in our lives that we don’t want to face, like cancer, losing your job, or family disharmony. We also avoid so many small things, every day and every week.
It’s not reaching out to someone because of a fear of being rejected or fear of saying the wrong thing.
It’s knowing you should reach out to someone who is hurting or going through a hard time in their life, but only offering help in word and not in deed. Maybe you don’t want to add another complication to your life, and you know if you just send an email or a note saying, “Let me know if you need help,” that they won’t ask for it, because we typically don’t.
It’s not listening to that voice inside you that tells you what to do, because it takes effort and it takes follow-through and it takes the planning part of it that we were talking about in class.
These are ways in which we do not live the moment, we do not walk through it. Instead, we turn away from the opportunity that was presented to us: to minister, to uplift, to ease a burden, to help.
There are lots and lots of times when I see something and I’ll say, “Oh, I’ve got to ask so-and-so about this, if they’d like to do that with me.” Or, “I should tell so-and–so about this great program that’s available for her and her situation.” But I don’t do it.
It’s that little voice that speaks these ideas to us, but we ignore it and we let it go and we let it drop. We don’t following through. And maybe that was God telling you, “Hey, that person needs you!” And that you need them, and you need more people in your life, and you need to be a person of action and a person who walks their faith instead of just thinking their faith.
I need to get my faith past my thought life and into my actual life, and into the action of my life.
It’s also keeping your mouth shut when God is compelling you to speak. Because you’re afraid to say too much, say the wrong thing, or be annoying, or be perceived in anything but the best light.
♦
steadily skipping stones 