LONELY ROAD OF FAITH

Bernard Preston's Journey of Faith

The lonely road of faith is a life-long journey that we all tread. In that I am no different to you, dear friend. Not to choose to walk in faith, is in itself a choice - the choice which I indeed made for the first twenty odd years of my life.

Lonely? Yes, indeed. For, though we meet other pilgrims along the way, the choices we make are irrevocably our own. By them we sink or swim.

Hundreds of thousands, even millions of books have been written on the Christian walk. Each is as individual and unique as we are ourselves, yet a thread of sameness runs through them all. The gracious nature of our God, the weakness of Man, the Trough of Despond and a striving to know God. Like the Southern Cross that flames the Milky Way, the cross of Jesus points, not South, but to the astonishing thought that it is totally within our grasp to stand confidently before God one day, blameless and without blemish. Confidently, but never arrogantly. Only the meek shall inherit the Earth.

I think in pictures, they seem simpler for my childlike brain. Set A is the whole of God’s creation: the stars, the Earth, us and each tiny creature and plant, and the highly complex processes that cause everything to hang together. In the beginning God created … that is the story of the opening pages of Genesis.

Set B is a subset, not to scale. Boring? but yes, I come from a mathematical background. It is the set of all the humans ever created. All were created in the likeness of God … with the ability to distinguish right from wrong. God loves his whole creation, the good, the bad and the ugly. Nothing difficult so far. Now comes the awkward part, the supreme arrogance: not all are His children.

For to those who believe in and receive the Christ

is given the privilege to be called the children of God.

Set C is the subset of God’s adopted children, those who have welcomed Jesus into their hearts and lives, and not because they are any more special or good, but simply because they have taken the leap of faith. And so the hackles rise: what an arrogance, what about the Chinese, the Muslims, what about me … ?

Indeed, it is a great arrogance, a great difficulty and yet so simple. God has laid down a way in which we may be rescued from the Dominion of Darkness and welcomed into the Kingdom of His Son.

The Great Dilemma: in the set B is much that is good (we are after all made in the likeness of God), and yes we Christians have to admit that in the set C there is much apparent darkness. There is no place for Christian arrogance. How do we explain this paradox?

When we take the step of committing ourselves to the kingship of Christ, firmly, with great determination, planting a foot in His kingdom, and take our first tottering steps along the lonely road of faith, some things are immediately settled:

• Our relationship to the Father (we are welcomed as His children),

• our acceptance by Jesus (his subjects, He is the King of Glory, but also his brothers and sisters!) and

• our membership of the Church (individual bricks built into a great edifice that is the universal Body of Christ, a body of which he is the Head) and

• our murky nature that characterized our former membership of the Dominion of Darkness (all is wiped away, the slate is clean; though our sins were like scarlet, they are made white as snow).

So very simple you say, but … Yes, there are indeed many buts. The biggest for me is that many things remain unsettled. My understanding is that at conversion, we firmly plant one foot in the Kingdom of Jesus, but the other foot remains tentatively rooted in the Dominion of Darkness. The lonely road of faith is about learning to shift all of our weight from our ‘darkness’ foot to the ‘kingdom’ foot.

Or, another way of putting it, is this initial response to Christ is only the beginning of a lifelong campaign to substitute His righteousness for our own self-righteousness. There are times when we make great strides forward in the faith journey but, looking back, we realize there were times when we were standing very firmly on our ‘darkness' foot. Things we did and said, even our thoughts. Christians are like baby flamingoes – learning to stand on the Kingdom foot! And not finding the balancing act at all easy on the lonely road of faith.

We hang our heads in shame. There can be no arrogance on the lonely road of faith. We are continually reminded by our Lord: "By their fruits you will know them." It's all about engagement with our God. Anything less is boring religion and not worth the time or effort. And it certainly won't get us to heaven.

Yet, paradoxically, our heads are held high. We are the children of God, our sins are forgiven, we are confident of eternity – provided we continue in our faith, established and learning to stand firmly like loving, mature flamingoes on the kingdom foot.

Obstinate and Pliable - Slough of Despond - Pilgrim loses his burden at the Cross - Simple Sloth - Hypocrisy Hill - Valley of the Shadow of Death - Plain of Ease - Giant Despair. Doesn't it sound so,so familiar, fellow traveller?

So, will you join me today on this lonely road of faith, both of us firmly taking a stand on the Kingdom foot? Then, paradoxically, surely we shall fly. Heaven will come down from Heaven - and be gloriously established in our hearts.