The Marathon
Around mile 19 of the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Marathon, I hit the wall. The smallest gust of cold air reminded me of walking into the open freezer room at Costco. My legs had turned into sacks of wet sand. If I could just use my arms to lift them up, I could keep going. I knew I could finish, but I wasn't sure I wanted to.
I sat with my friends in silence. I'd asked, "What makes it hard to trust that God cares for you?" We needed a minute to decide if we wanted to answer the question. One person mentioned being unemployed for two years. "It seems like God is giving me a rock instead of bread." Another talked about gruesome news reports from a civil war. "Why does God allow children to suffer like this?" I shared how "doing God's will", as best I understood it, had led me to experience spiritual abuse. When Paul says, "The righteous will live by faith," he's referencing Habakkuk 2:4. Habakkuk was a prophet who wrestled with God. In the book named after him, he builds a case that God does not listen to his prayers and does not save his people. The evidence is strong: "Oppression and violence are right in front of me" (Habakkuk 1:3). God answers by telling him that he is bringing the Babylonians to invade (1:6). So Habakkuk laments, "Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress to come against the people invading us" (3:16). Even though he is God's prophet and trusts in God's provision, he does not get better circumstances. Habakkuk ends his final prayer with these words, "The LORD my Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!" At mile 19, I would have settled for my feet to stop burning. Craig Keener explains, "Biblical saving faith was not passive assent but actively staking one’s life on the claims of God. It was a certainty sufficient to affect one’s lifestyle." Faith is choosing to trust God to the point of obeying him, whether or not our circumstances get better. Habakkuk trusted God before he could see the outcome. We know that Jesus trusted his Father enough to die on the cross, and then he was raised by the Spirit of holiness (Romans 1:4). We live by faith, not because we're forcing ourselves to keep running, but because God is keeping us alive.
What makes it hard to trust that God cares for you?
Spiritually, what does it feel like to 'hit the wall' as you run the race of faith?
Who helps you to live by faith when it is hardest?
God told Habakkuk to write down the vision he gave him so that it could be read easily (2:2). Write "The righteous will live by faith" on a notecard and put it somewhere you'll see it this week.