Crazy faith

Everywhere I look it seems I meet a person in need. Last night on the news, I heard that in the state of Oregon, one in five households have applied for food stamps. Many who have never used state services are now unable to meet their monthly bills without them. It's crazy times.


And crazy times call for crazy faith. Here's my highly theological understanding of crazy faith: It simply receives. Receives the calling one has been given, without worrying about the outcome. Receives his Word as Truth, resting in (and often clinging to) the promises he gives as we ask for direction. Receives provision for our daily needs, with thankfulness and without guilt that we can't give anything back.


I was blown away the other day by the power of like. Consider this verse: Psalm 37:23--"The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way." The lexical definition for 'delights' from Strong's Key Word Study Bible: "to find pleasure, to take delight in, to be pleased with. Either man or God may have this feeling. It means to like someone or something very, very much."

How many of us have ever said of our children (or, ahem!) another family member, "I love _________, but I don't really like him/her right now"? In our Christian walk, we are well-schooled in the love of God. We know "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son" so well we could recite it in our sleep. And that is an awesome, beautiful, all-encompassing love. But do we ever think about how he delights in us? Delight in a relationship speaks of the intimacy of it.

So back to this crazy faith idea. If our steps are established by the Lord, and he likes what he has established very, very much, then we can rest assured that he will see us down our path, however dark it may seem.