The Side of the Cereal Box

Genesis 15:6 ?Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.?

What an interesting aside in the story of Abram. Was this abnormal? For someone to believe the LORD? I have to say that it made me stop and think about how disappointed I am ? and even how amazed ? sometimes when I think about how little belief there is among Christians today. Jesus saw it too, in his time ? that ?unbelieving generation?. Nowadays we struggle to believe in God at all, let alone anything He says. It is sad to see Christians living a defeated lifestyle simply because they don?t take God at His word.

Now, C. Peter Wagner?s list of spiritual gifts includes ?Faith?. Some could argue that faith is something all Christians need to have, so to limit it (so to speak) to those with that ?gifting? is handicapping the rest of the Church. But Wagner modifies the definition a bit to identify the gifting as an extreme faith ? faith beyond what a ?normal? Christian might have. But in a world where Christians have so little faith to begin with, what defines ?extreme?? Does it fluctuate with the norm (like a variable credit card rate)? I think it ought not. And to be honest, I don?t even know that I agree with faith (even extreme) as a gifting.

Some may associate great faith with experience, for example: answers to prayer (consistently). They then feel that because they have had few ?real? experiences like that, they are excused from having faith (that Thomas ?prove-it-to-me? attitude). This is not so. Faith is like a muscle: you can?t build it unless you exercise it. If you are praying, ?Lord, give me more faith,? He will respond by giving you opportunities to exercise it. You may not notice them at first (they will usually be little ones ? baby steps), but once you decide to trust Him, to believe, to have faith in a situation, He will answer you with awesome deeds of righteousness. It?s that mysterious step between head belief and heart belief. You may know that you can trust God (in your head), but until you really do and see that He is oh so trustworthy it may never take root in your heart. That?s how faith builds: a little at a time.

But here?s something else. Think about the Israelites. Their faith was shaky at best. God did great wonders in their sight (hello! Red Sea!), yet they forgot time and again. Whenever a leader (such as Moses) would address the nation, he always started with a historical run-down of all the things God had done for them ? to remind them of His love and faithfulness. It says in Psalm 103:7 that, ?He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people Israel.? This is where we find the profound difference between Moses and the rest of the Israelites! While the people only saw what God did, Moses saw why He did it. Moses knew God?s heart. He had faith because He knew God ? His character, not just His history. You want a formula for a successful, victorious Christian life? There it is! Know God. Get to know God; learn all you can about Him. Don?t spend your life waiting for Him to prove Himself to you. ?He already has.

So it’s November already! And with the turn of the month, I feel it’s only right to update my blog. In truth, I’ve had many occasions where I’ve wanted to post something, but inevitably something got in the way (e.g. I forgot, I was at war with the computer again, I forgot again…) No excuses this time! Ha ha!

…Only now it seems I don’t have much to say. Why is that? Perhaps it’s because I’m distracted by the small children running around, eating anything they can put in their mouths, playing the piano, asking for candy (and probably sneaking some while I’m not looking), and otherwise breaking my train of thought. But it’s all good.

Truth is, I like having them around. I’m babysitting a little girl (11 mo. old) in Fishers every other Wednesday night now, and her mom was worried that after all the children I see during the week that I’d be sick of them by the time I got to her house. The weird thing is, I’m not. …It probably helps to have different children to look after - ya know, a little variety - but I really like babysitting!

That’s part of why I became a Music Education major in college, really. I thought, “I love music, and I love kids… How ’bout Music Ed.?” Now, on the other side of college, I still love music, and I still love kids, but apparently there is something more required to be a music teacher, something I lack. There are those who would disagree.

I went to the Fall Choral Concert at ISU last Friday night. I talked to some of my professors and some of my friends who are (surprise) still there. I even saw one of my former students there (from when I was student teaching at North Central)! He was surprised to hear that I’m not teaching. He said I was good (even though Mrs. Wiehe wouldn’t let me do anything) and that some of the CounterPoints still talk about one of the lessons I did with them. (That was nice to hear, but the CPs were the good kids! I’d be surprised if the Allegros were doing the same.) My friends were surprised that I wasn’t teaching. Dr. Buchanan made sure to toss in, “Still plenty of teaching jobs available!” I got to talking to Dr. Sullivan (dept. chair and my music history prof.) and admitted that I worried about being a disappointment to everyone. I really appreciated his response: “No one could be disappointed in you, Katie.” …I’m sure it’s stretching the truth a bit, but…

It’s just that… I was a promising student; I’m sure they had high hopes for me. But I’ve only ever been a good student. The student thing I’ve got down. The teaching thing (at least in the formal setting) seems beyond me. I can’t seem to make people understand that. So I get the shock, surprise, and sighs when they find out I’m not teaching and don’t intend to. As if I’ll never live up to my full potential if I never teach.

…But I don’t believe that. I believe God has something greater in store for me. And if I’m following His lead, I will never be a disappointment. At least not to Him. And in the end, He’s really the only one who counts.