Live By Faith

For we live by faith, not by sight. 

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)

I saw the prompt this morning, and I thought I'd best let it sit and stew a little while before attempting to say anything meaningful in this scant five minutes.  So I exercised.  Lately I've been reading Beth Moore while exercising - you know, exercise for the body, words for the heart....  And I thought about "Keep".  The poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling came to me...if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.... (You can link to the poem here)   I can't seem to memorize bible verses very well, but I have a whole bunch of first lines to poems... hmm...

And I thought about the 'keep' in this first line - I thought about the news - I thought about the horrific news reports from the Middle East.  Beheadings.  Live burnings.  Using children for unspeakable acts.  I thought about the horrific news reports from Africa.  Kidnappings.  Sex slaves.  HIV.  Ebola.  

I thought about the news agencies responding.  Confirming reports.  Making sure of the facts - but reporting the rumors anyway.

And I thought....

The very act of speaking these actions, of writing these atrocities, of putting them into our world - damages us.  Damages us in ways we may never know for generations.  I listened to a woman speaking about building schools in Sudan.  She talked about generational violence - it is built into the culture.

Friends - violence is built into OUR culture.  Slender man.  A bucket challenge joke of feces and urine thrown on a young man with autism.  A woman with intellectual disabilities tied up with a string of Christmas lights and set on fire by people she thought were friends.  50 Shades of Gray.  I recently attended a workshop on bullying in our schools.  Violence is in our culture.  

I usually don't write about events that rip my heart and tear my soul.  That literally have me on my knees sobbing.  I try very hard to choose joy.  And there are times when only through knowing that God does not forsake us and will never leave us, can I move forward.

In the study I read as I exercised, Beth said she had heard a wise friend say that following Christ with the whole heart is like walking so far out on a limb that you can only proceed by faith, because if you try to walk by sight, you will surely fall.

Friends - we have to keep our faith in Christ.

Heavenly Father, Let us not let go of our faith in the face of this world.  
Let us not let go of prayers in our schools, of loving one another even as you loved us, 
even when we were sinners.  
Let us keep your joy in our hearts, even in the midst of horror.  
Help me to keep your joy in my heart, even in the midst of horror.  
You are God.  
You are good.  
You are.

Linking with Kate for 5-Minute Friday