A Today Kind of Faith
Summer has hit! It’s 90 degrees outside and I’ve started ordering my chai tea lattes from Starbucks iced rather than hot. I’m not complaining though; in fact this summer marks the beginning of a new kind of summer. A restrict-less one. Yesterday I got LASIK surgery on my eyes…and it worked! They’re a little dry right now, but my world has become 1000 times better overnight. I woke up this morning and didn’t have to scour the bed or cabinet or floor for my glasses. No more will I be subject to Harry Potter correlations. No more will I have to wonder whether my glasses will fit through the hole in my shirt or if they will get caught in the the aperture and attempt to fuse my nosepiece into my cartilage. (If you don’t wear glasses, I don’t expect you to understand.) Now I will be able to tell which bottle is the shampoo or conditioner in the shower. Life. Changing. 1000 percent. I also was awarded from the eye clinic “client of the week” (on a Monday mind you) and received a Starbucks gift card for my charisma and charm and flowing red locks…which is what I used to buy today’s chai tea latte.
I don’t know about you, but the Lord has been showing me and preparing me for lots of things this summer. I see it—Lasik or not. I’ve been struck by the passage in Hebrews 3; a month or so ago Luke, one of my students, started up a conversation with me on verse 13’s use of the word “today.” Today. Today. The Spirit over the past few weeks has let this word ring in my heart.
"Today" reminds me of that moment when you didn't do something you mother asked you to do, and you hear her say, "I meant today!"
At first, when I was reading the ancient exhortation the application for today seemed simple: it is never good to be in sin-nor is it ever good to not do what your mother asks. Exhort your brother today so that he is not resting, walking, or living in sin. Simple. Tell the truth and shun the devil. It is a moral urgency.
The second exhortation that rose up is that “today” also carries this timely urgency; “Today if you’re drowning, get out of the water!” What separated the Israelites in the desert from their promised land was not desert, it was desire. They failed for they did not realize that their promise lied with God today in the wilderness…not tomorrow in the milk and honey. The true tragedy of the desert wandering was that among the 40 years of “todays”—where the people were blessed by God breakfast, lunch, and noon and with shade, warmth, and leadership—their promise wasted in longing for tomorrow, just like the manna and quail each night. The mildewing of every meal overnight, symbolized the loss of a day treasuring God. Fortunately new manna continued to fall each morning.
“If we ignore the calling of God today, He might not call tomorrow.”
But the third, which has only hit me recently, is from verse 15, “today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” If we ignore the calling of God today, He might not call tomorrow. Or our hearts will be so cold, hard, and rebellious from our own rejection that the Spirit’s promptings are no more convicting or compelling than a hot day’s summer breeze where one simply exclaims, “that felt nice.”
Today is a word of faith. Our faith of tomorrow is forged out of our faith of today, and without the sharpening of the Spirit, our spiritual, faith eyes become dim, fuzzy, and often unclear. I wonder how many of our insecurities, ponderings, and traditions spawn from our near-sightedness.
It takes faith to live today, but it takes no faith to live tomorrow. If Abraham had pushed off sacrificing Isaac to tomorrow, would God have called him the next day? Of course not! That’s absurd. The removal of Isaac as an idol in Abraham’s heart was a matter of today. God never intends our idols or laziness to make it to tomorrow.
“No amount of saving for tomorrow can save your today.”
Today’s faith is what gives tomorrow life. My fear is that my hopes for tomorrow (financial plans, work plans, ministerial plans) kill my faith of today. And then I spend my days collecting for tomorrow what I’ll never truly enjoy, like the excess quail and manna gathered by the desert-wanderers. Simply put no amount of saving for tomorrow can save your today.
And I don’t want to just throw around the word tomorrow without defining it. Tomorrow is a day where we live unencumbered by the poor faith decisions we made the day before. Esau suffered his entire life and was hated by God because of a poor faith decision. If we live in faith today, tomorrow we live unchained, inspired, and useable. The largest issue among most of us is that we are not useable; not because God can’t use us, but because our self-sightedness deceives us and renders us blind and deaf.
Besides repeating the words “today” and “tomorrow” over and over what do I feel the Lord practically calling me to in today and the upcoming summer?
“If you and I can live in a today faith we may “lose” a lot, but nothing of worth.”
To start, what does my faith today look like? If you and I can live in a today faith—a faith that trusts that Jesus is more satisfying that sleep, sex, money, and Netflix—we may “lose” a lot, but nothing of worth. Galatians 3:7 says “Know that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Does your faith identify you as a son or as an illegitimate child? What was Abraham’s faith like? It was cutthroat. It was a faith willing to slaughter son, a faith willing to leave home compass-less. I want that kind of faith. One that at any moment is unhindered and desirous to take any step necessary, to make any sacrifice, go any direction, to hear from and be used by God.
So this summer, as we pursue righteous, can we spend today unreserved and unrestricted as we dethrone our heart idols and lead lives full of compassion with no compasses, so that we ourselves might be unreserved, unrestricted, and useable by the Lord?