ordinary faith
“The time of the Son of Man will be just like the time of Noah - everyone carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ship. They suspected nothing until the flood hit and swept everything away. It was the same in the time of Lot - the people carrying on, having a good time, business as usual.”
“It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, “The work is done. What we were told to do, we did…That’s how it will be - sudden, total - when the Son of Man is revealed.” (Luke 17:10, 26-28, 30)
Jesus makes some key statements about faith. It’s not the size of your faith, but whether you have it in the first place. Faith leads you to incredible places, impossible feats. And faith exists in the ordinary, day-to-day, in just living a simple, trusting, prepared life.
It’s this last part that speaks most to me. Jesus chides those who just go about their lives with no sense of His bigger picture. Those who carry on business as usual, with no vision or inkling of God’s work, will reap the consequences. It happened in Noah’s time. It happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. And it is happening today.
I find this hard, because each day feels so similar, so routine. It’s so easy to go through a day with nothing extraordinary happening, get sucked into the temptation to call each day a drag, same old, same old. We’re looking for moments of memory, except-ional ones, a weekend to remember. Something out of the ordinary.
But faith is understanding that each day isn’t business as usual. Each day is an opportunity to look around and cultivate hope. It is to hear people’s stories and sense a burden, see a greater work happening. Each day we feel dissatisfied opens the door to see what’s really going on in our world today. That we need not live as slaves, but free created beings filled with a certain kind of Spirit.
My faith is built on the day-in, day-out part of life. I learn faith during moments of boredom, tension, strife, sin. I am primed, prepared for moments when faith is called upon, and I’ll realise with confidence I actually possess faith inside. God is speaking in the most ordinary of moments. I must dare not cast aside a day and call it ‘any-old’, but realise something wonderful is happening in me. If I walk humbly. Love grace. And listen to Him.
Father, my faith is so non-existent at times. But you are speaking. May my ears hear you Father, even in the most quiet and unassuming of times.
Let me hear you quietly. May each day bring gifts I don’t deserve. Amen.
