I had a nice long talk with our Lord last night…
it was about him being God…
and me believing in him.
And I used a gambling term…
And I’m not the first to equate faith with a gamble.
It’s famous this proposition, it even has a name…
Pascal’s Wager…the reason to “bet” on God…
“Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is… If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”
I feel a little better now about talking of God in gambling terms.
He’s good like that, he understands, he lets us come to him from all directions.
I used a poker term with God…
I told him I’m “all in”…
You know, the bet in poker when you take all your pretty stacks of chips…
and push them slowly in a dramatic fashion…all the stacks tumbling forward…
and bet everything you have on the table, hoping that you will win the hand.
Actually poker players generally just say “all in” with no dramatic pushing.
Anyway…
I told God, I’m “all in”…
I’m “all in” in believing that there is a God of all things…
and that Our God of the Bible is. that. God.
We talked about how I’ve given 27 years of my life to believing that he is God.
And yes I’ve been a lot of trouble for him, but I have never stopped believing.
And I talked to him about how if suddenly tomorrow someone presented indisputable proof that Christianity was a fraud, that the God of the Bible was a hoax…there would be nothing left of me. Truth be told, I have failed at so much in my life. There is far more failure than success. I failed at Him too. It was his Grace that reached out and pulled me back from the precipice.
The one absolutely wild success of my life is my faith.
And we talked about how it’s just faith…
that there is evidence, good reason to believe…
but in the end it’s just belief it’s not proof.
At the beginnings of my faith I was watching a television preacher, Robert Shuler, and I was racked with doubts – so many that I couldn’t take the step of faith. And as I sat there that morning, out came these words that changed the game…
Where proof is possible…
faith is impossible.
People are familiar with love being the first lines of Corinthians 13…
Everyone knows the words…
But people are often surprised…
that love includes faith.
Love is believing.
Love makes the great wager.
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“Where proof is possible…faith is impossible.” – I like that.
This is a great “Welcome Back” post to come in on (now that all my commitments are over for a couple of weeks, and I can breathe again, breathing and slow time is good). I’m now gonna go and look back over what I’ve missed.
Michelle, if you read backwards and you know “missed” a lot. I know this – YOU were missed too. God bless you. Merry Christmas.
I had never thought about love being faith, so I am waiting for your next post…
it’s right there at the end of the love verses A. Love believes – and in my little subject “cloud” on the sidebar you’ll see that faith is one of the bigger words – the words get bigger the more you write about that particular subject – that’s why I write about faith all the time – faith is a part of love. but I’m not sure if this is a two-part post – I think I just wanted to talk about talking to God about my faith. Next post will be good – but I don’t think a continuation of this. God bless you A
Craig, I have been out of touch for a bit here and this blog post is what I really needed today. I have been hiding my heart the last couple of weeks and sharing it with only HIM. Love does take faith…. all kinds of love, not just faith in God, but faith in the person you love. Thank you for your gift of words that spoke deep to my heart.
so you hide your heart to huh? good to know I’m not alone. We both really need to be sharing it with more than just God. Don’t we? And Faith is definitely part of love, it’s right at the bottom of the love versus – love believes all things. And good point – in order to live we need to have faith in other things besides God – it’s just that God is the crucial thing, the crucial person to have faith in. Katie, I just said a prayer for you, God bless you my friend.
Thank you for the prayer! I did begin to share at Blue Christmas and I will share more at Delta on Tuesday night. Delta is the recovery group I help facilitate. And last week I was not vulnerable at all, but I know the more vulnerable I am the more others are also. So I talked with our leadership team at a meeting this weekend about it and they are going to make a point to ask me if I am sharing fully. 🙂 And now I just need to share with my husband which is a bit harder sometimes.
“The one absolutely wild success of my life is my faith.” I.LOVE.THIS. Wow. Powerful sentence. I too have failed more than I care to count. I too have caused God so much trouble. I always believed I was faithful – I mean after all, wasn’t I sitting in mass every single Sunday? Yet I wasn’t. I didn’t search Him. I didn’t reach for HIS Word. He reached out for me. I love your gambling analogy – so often you give me fresh ways of looking at things – I love that! I am “all in” too! And Craig, thank you for the sweetest comment that you left on my site! The kindness warmed my heart and was much needed. Blessings. Merry Christmas!
I really wish there were more successes than just one wild one. But if I have to choose one and only one thing to have success with – faith would be it. I’m glad to have someone like you be “all in” with me. And I hearted your post – I heart reading you – hopefully my plan of going from 10 to 8 posts a week will have me reading you more – and commenting. God bless you Carrie, Merry Christmas.