Holy fools

If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.   — Mark 9:23

When God spoke to Abram, he obeyed at once, departing for an unknown land based only on a promise. Childless, he trusted God to make of him “a great nation” (Gen. 12:2).

God often does His work through “holy fools” — dreamers who strike out in ridiculous faith. Yet I tend to approach my decisions with calculation and restraint.

My church in Chicago once scheduled an all-night vigil of prayer during a major crisis. At length we discussed the practicality of the event before finally putting it on the calendar. The poorest members of the congregation, a group of senior citizens from a housing project, responded the most enthusiastically. I wondered how many of their prayers had gone unanswered over the years, yet they showed a childlike trust in the power of prayer. “How long do you want to stay — an hour or two?” we asked, thinking of van shuttles. “Oh, we’ll stay all night,” they replied.

One woman in her 90s explained, “We can pray. We got time, and we got faith. Some of us don’t sleep much anyway. We can pray all night if needs be.” And so they did.

Meanwhile, a bunch of yuppies in a downtown church learned an important lesson: Faith often appears where least expected and falters where it ought to thrive. — Philip Yancey

Faith looks across the storm — it does not just doubt

Or stop to look at clouds and things without.

Faith does not question why when all His ways

Are hard to understand, but trusts and prays. — Anon.

READ: Genesis 12:1-5

Prayer is the voice of faith.

The Bible in one year:

• 2 Chronicles 15-16

• John 12:27-50