Faith in the future means power in the present

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  —Hebrews 12:1–2 NIV

Over the last few months, these devotionals have been focused on two words: by faith. What does it mean to live “by faith”? Is faith a concept that can find expression in our contemporary world — a world of science and technology and philosophy and therapy?

The late Howard Hendricks, a professor and preacher, put it this way in one of his sermons:

I didn’t observe any of you come into this room and examine your chair before you sat in it. You just automatically committed yourself by faith to the chair, assuming it would hold you. Most of you got here by car; you slid in the car and turned on the ignition and away you go. You don’t have a clue as to what goes on behind the scene. You can’t explain the process. You just trust it.

The last time you went to a doctor, he wrote out a little prescription. You couldn’t read it. In fact, you wondered if anybody could read the thing! Then you took it to your pharmacist, and you gave it to him. Have you ever discovered when you give a pharmacist a prescription, he always disappears behind the screen? That shakes me up. I often wonder what in the world the guy is doing back there. I wonder if he slept through his course in pharmacy school. But he gives you the little bottle and says, “Take it three times a day,” and by faith you do exactly what he tells you to do. Faith is woven into the system.

I can relate to what Hendricks says. My wife and I just returned from a business trip to Australia. When I think about what we did — not once or twice but several times — it’s enough to shake up the more cognitive side of my being: we boarded a flight (two were domestic in Australia and two involved more than a dozen hours across the open sea) and took our seats. We never met the pilots. Or the mechanics. Or the air traffic controllers. Or anyone else who had to do with keeping those flights airborne. Yet we still put our lives in their hands. Because by faith we believed the airlines trustworthy.

In the passage above, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews compares life to the running of a race — a race that is witnessed by countless others. Jesus, in fact, when he was here in the flesh, ran that same race, and it was tragically difficult. It meant that he ended up on a cross. The writer is suggesting, then, that Jesus understands every single challenge we face along the way. As such, as we each run our own race, we are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Why? Because he has run this course before and he will lead us toward a better future.

But how do we do that? Maybe one of the best and most simple ways is to take a few minutes each day to read from the story of Jesus’ life. Matthew. Mark. Luke. John. They each tell his story from their own perspective. Reading some of that story each day will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. It will enlighten us. Encourage us. Guide us. Change us. And the fact that he is not physically present before us means that we are doing it by faith.

How important is this? I’ll let Ray Johnston answer, a pastor whom I heard tell this story…

There was a romantic hamlet in Maine where the people were told by the state to get ready to sell and move, because a dam was going to be built, and all of their property would be inundated. They were told to either sell or get good scuba equipment!

A writer went to see the place about a year later and noticed something interesting: the place was very run down. Fences were unpainted. Lawns were unmowed. Roads were unrepaired.

And the writer wrote something very interesting: “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.”

Faith is essential to life — and especially to the spiritual life. So keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. By faith.

—Randy Roberts, DMin, LMFT, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.