Life isn’t easy. 

Challenges are plentiful. It’s a challenge to pay all the bills at the end of the month and then suddenly something breaks, or a thief comes in the night and takes even the little you do have. It breaks you. 

I don’t get it, but when you need it most, relationships fall apart. One moment the water is as calm as a pond, and the next the waves are so big you fear the boat is going to sink. 

And when you huddle down like that, you realize that even your faith is hanging by a thread. Great theologians draw a line through Jesus’ resurrection and what you’ve held on to all these years is apparently no longer true. 

If that thread breaks, you have nothing left.  

I suspect our coach knew that. The first people he has in mind are young Christians. If you think your faith is badly shaken now, imagine yourself in those people’s shoes. 

For them, Jesus had been on earth only a few years ago. The Jesus movement had been going for a short time only and they most likely often asked: “Suppose Jesus wasn’t God’s Son? Let’s just say He wasn’t the Saviour?” 

Add to that the oppression they had to suffer from the state and the church, yes, the church. Add the torture and crucifixion and stoning of fellow Christians, then turning around and running away must often have seemed like a way out. 

That is why Peter is encouraging them from the corner of the boxing ring, where they are fighting for the survival of their spiritual life: 6… complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. 

Denise’s colon with cancer was removed. She lay in her hospital bed with open eyes, many questions and a shaky faith. She was angry with God and felt very sorry for herself. And the bag here by her side … 

Her brother entered and put a small blue flashlight on the bedside table. He said that the flashlight was the light of her faith. He had just put in new batteries. He could see that she didn’t understand. He told her how afraid he was. Every time the fear gripped him, he prayed and shone the light of faith. 

Denise said that now she’s never without her flashlight. When fear grips her, when her faith wavers, she shines the light of the little blue flashlight and continues to believe in her God. 

And the “batteries” that her brother put in? Before he came, he had prayed for her for two hours. 

When the waves are higher than your head, when your faith begins to waver and the church and clever theologians say things that make you doubt, when your circumstances suffocate you, you must stand strong. Even if it doesn’t always make sense, turn on your faith light and know that there is an Almighty God who loves you so much and who will not allow circumstances or people to get you down.  

Scripture
2 Peter 1:3-15  

Reflection
What is pushing you down?
What is hindering your faith?
What can you do to keep your faith? 

Prayer
Father, it is so. Sometimes I struggle to believe. Sometimes I even wonder if You exist. Help me not to let my faith be stolen. I believe in You who are my Heavenly Father forever. Amen.