It’s been a strange week. A sad week. One of those weeks where you’re knocked for a loop, start to get up, and something else comes along and gives you a shove before you can get your feet under you. It’s the kind of week intent on making you say, “Why even bother getting back up?”
We’ve been fighting an invisible war for a long time. A lot longer than this pandemic. Longer even then the war against injustice. It’s a battle for the heart, a constant stream of attacks by an enemy who wants to steal our joy.
In the middle of all this, I’m left with just this one thought – faith takes courage. The world is constantly telling you to give up, to loosen your grip on hope. How can you stop an avalanche of bad news? On those days, maybe you wonder if you’ll be able to hold on long enough, if your arms will be strong enough to keep you from falling into a pit of despair.
I have good news for you – that’s not your job.
Weak faith is faith. It might need nourishment and encouragement, but it is faith and that’s something. Jesus promises to take our minuscule, not-very-impressive faith and do something extraordinary with it (Matthew 17:20). You see it’s not our faith that moves the mountains – it’s the Mountain Mover who moves mountains. The part our faith plays is in waiting for God to move it.
Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Hebrews 10:23
Even when the pandemic is over, the war against your heart will continue. There will be more bad news. And so you will need courage to go on. But you must go on. This is not where you were meant to be.
Every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 1 John 5:4