As I was reading over the assigned readings from the lectionary for Sunday, I was especially struck by the opening lines of the second lesson from Hebrews:

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

In my office I have a light switch on my bookshelf. I have used it several times in children’s messages. As the kids gather around, I flip the switch I have in my hand and the lights on the platform go out. Then I hit the switch and they come back on. Of course, the sound tech is involved in this magic! But I use it to say I have no idea how electricity works. What I do know is when I flip a light switch in my house, I know the lights are going to come on. That’s the way it is with faith. I have no idea how it works; I just know it does. I keep that prop on my bookshelf as a reminder.

There are many places in the Gospels where Jesus said it was good to believe in the things we can see, but even better if we believe in what we can’t see. Again… that’s faith. I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of person who needs to know where I’m going. I want to know the steps to reach my destination. Last week Jim and I drove down to Champaign to see a friend of mine from college who had just had surgery. We had Google Maps lead the way and it was awful! We even ended up on some gravel roads! Needless to say, we came home a different route. As unpleasant as that trip was, we were putting our faith in Google Maps. We got to our destination in one piece but were completely at the mercy of the GPS. Sometimes that’s what faith can be like. We know what our destination is…we just don’t know how God plans on getting us there. That my friends is what God calls faith. We don’t know how it works… it just does.

See you Sunday!