And without faith...

Merry Christmas Eve!

"Today" has always been a day of expectation for me; awaiting the Christmas festivities of opening gifts and the newness that comes from all of the new toys and games in the house, now awaiting the arrival of family that I don't get to see much with my living 700 miles away in the peach land of Georgia.  It kind of started with my childhood expectation of what Santa may bring me; and now it's a different and much richer expectation that's come from experiencing the love of Jesus because regardless of which historical day He actually came into the world, tomorrow is the day that those of us that cherish Him celebrate it.

However, in our festive anticipation... with all of the glamour and beauty that we place around it... dwarfs the anticipation and expectation of that very first Christmas.  On whatever day and whatever month it actually happened.

There were no rushes to the shopping malls.  There were no trees.  There were no lineups of parties for friends to gather, eat and drink, and create memories.  There was just a young couple, forced to travel a long journey, while pregnant, to satisfy an emperor's demand to make sure he was getting his fair share in taxes.  I'm sure they would have preferred to brave the malls.  There were no high profile parties.  There weren't even decent accommodations available.   And because of what happened that night, the names of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth ring louder in our ears than that of Caesar Augustus from Rome.

They have indeed blessed the world.  But it didn't start there.  It started a moment, nine months earlier, when God asked Joseph (and Mary) to take a step of faith.

You probably know the story... Joseph somehow finds out that his fiance is pregnant and knows the baby's not his. I'm certain being confused, he decided to take the one step out that would serve Mary the least shame and allow him to pick up the pieces and move on with life.  Quietly providing her a certificate of divorce was probably the most loving, and safe, thing he could do in a situation like this in that culture.  Before he could act on his plan, God sends an angel to visit him and tells him that Mary has indeed been faithful, the child is from God & the Messiah, and that he should not be afraid to go ahead and marry Mary (like the alliteration? :-) )

And of course we living in the 2012 post-Mayan apocalypse world know, that Joseph abandoned his plans to divorce Mary and took her as his wife.  He decided to trust God, believe His promise, and make a move that risked based on God's faithfulness... he acted on faith.

Later on, an inspired writer communicating to a group of Jewish believers in Jesus said this.  "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)  In the same context that he penned this oft-quoted phrase, he gives us example after example of what it's looked like in pre-Messianic history to exercise faith:

• Abraham left his home and his family and went out to seek a homeland God would show him but would never let him personally settle in.
• Moses left the poshness of the palace and became a fugitive.
• A Canaanite prostitute Rahab committed treason by hiding foreign spies and getting them to swear an oath that they would spare her life.

There are many more.. but the common thread that each of these examples has is that people took a risk based on God's faithfulness and chose to accept a future, better reward versus what they could see. 

They chose to believe in the faithfulness of God and didn't trust the illusion of comfort that was immediately in front of them.  That is what faith looks like... it is choosing to trust in God's love and act based upon it despite what we can see, feel, smell, or touch.  

Now, none of us are probably going to be asked to leave our home and go live on the street, or lead an army, or take on a fiance who is pregnant with a child we didn't father.  However, living by faith in our context isn't without risks.  Choosing to forgo our image management strategies and confessing our weaknesses to our small groups, to our close friends, the girl we are dating or married to, requires faith.  Guys (especially those of us not "playing the game"):  asking a godly woman out requires faith.  Committing to serve in ministry requires faith.  Why?  We can't see the outcome, and we must trust that whatever happens God's going to come through for us no matter what.  We must believe that the reward of living in the grace of God is better than the safety we're forgoing to follow Him.  

Which brings me back to Joseph.  You realize that the angel didn't give him a whole lot of details about what was going to happen next.  He just got the next step (go ahead and marry Mary).  That's all we really get too.  If we really knew all of the outcomes of our decisions and we had a perfect future life map, would we really be living by faith or would we just be reading a script?  And seriously, what's the fun in just reading the script?  

In the case of Joseph's life, we know how things turned out... because he followed through by trusting God, he got to raise the Son of God, teach Him how to be a carpenter, experience the visiting of dignitaries from the East, and all kinds of crazy stuff... and we're still talking about him today when many other young blue-collared workers living normal lives in that day will not be remembered.  His life was extraordinary not because he was particularly extraordinary but because he chose (almost like Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit) to accept the adventure that God had placed before him and reject the choice that didn't require faith.  As a result, his life became extraordinary and it pleased God.  We set up scenes and put a statue of him in it every year about this time... how many people running around the ancient world have their own yearly nativity scene (like this one... lol)... um... None!  

Similarly for us, when the choice to reject the option that doesn't require faith comes before us - we don't know what will come out on the other end.  We don't... Joseph didn't.  What he knew that the choice to trust God and act based on faith was the one that would be blessed.  In doing so, he pleased God who rewarded him.  

But what we do know, is that the choice that requires faith is the one that makes God smile.  And somehow, that choice puts us on an adventure that wouldn't be possible without it. 

Merry Christmas!! :-)