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We all need help don’t we? We all have moments of awkwardness. Speaker David Edwards calls them ‘goober moments’. Most of my goober moments take place in bathrooms.
While taking my golden retriever for a walk in a park I decided to take her into the men’s restroom with me. I told her to “Sit.”, and immediately heard from the stall next to me, “I am sitting.” “Sorry Sir.” I replied. “Oh no problem,” he said, “Sure wish my kids would obey like your dog.”
We all have goober moments like that.
We all have times when we need help, don’t we? Really smart people disagree with each other. It seems everybody thinks they’re right, which means when a lot of people die they will find out they were wrong. People a lot smarter and better educated than me cannot agree with one another.
Nonetheless, neutrality is not a good option. We have to make choices in times of doubt. I may be trapped in a burning building and my only escape is to jump into a blanket a few stories below. But what happens if I don’t believe the blanket or the guys holding it will save me? I may die up here, but I am not jumping.
Now, jumping out the window is rational because it is my best shot for survival. So what is more rational now; faith or doubt? I have to make a decision; this is the best shot of survival I got.
Abraham was a man of faith and doubt. In Genesis 12 we see Abraham leave everything
he had ever known in his home country to go to a place he had never been. You think he had doubts? You bet. Abraham went to the land promised to him by God. He decided to trust God in the midst of his doubt.
Like Abraham, our trust is determined by the convictions we really have. You and I may believe in something, but do I have convictions about it? I saw a bumper sticker that said, Everyone has to believe in something, I believe I’ll have another beer.
We all have public convictions, like the political candidate’s PR person’s statement, “He really did not mean that. What he really meant was…” The same ole impressing people in public with a convincing tone kind of thing.
We all have private convictions that we think we believe until they are tried. Abraham, fearing for his life lied to the Egyptians that his wife was his sister. Can we hear him say, “Works for me.”? It worked well enough to do it again later.
John Ortberg says, “I believe that a lie is a bad thing, but it might be necessary for me to avoid pain.” (“A lie is an abomination to the Lord and a very present help in time of trouble.”) We all have certain convictions, but our lives can reflect something different.
Then, there are convictions of the heart, things that matter most. Just knowing that there are different levels of conviction doesn’t necessarily change our hearts. The disciples saw first hand the consistency between what Jesus said, what He thought and what He did. He was absolutely consistent with His convictions.
He believed in His Father who was always present and always loved Him. By His example the disciples began to believe truths for themselves. They not only had faith in Jesus, but then had the faith of Jesus.
They trusted Him with their very lives. Faith involves certain convictions and hope, but at its’ core, it is trusting in a person. Jesus never said, “Believe in a concept or an argument,” but rather, “Believe in Me and I will give you LIFE!”
May we embrace Him and live what we believe. It changes everything!
