Last week, my daughter and I spoke and the title to our talk was "Courageous Faith". I would like to share a little bit what our talk was about.
As we prepared for the night, it kept coming back to me how it is ALWAYS courageous to have faith! It is not easy to be "courageous" but essential if you are going to believe in something that you have no apparent proof of right from the get go!
Such was our Journey to Africa! My daughter and I had similar experiences with "Courageous Faith" just different circumstances surrounded us. The definition of courageous is: quality of being brave: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action (Bing dictionary).
The definition of faith is: belief or trust: belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof (Bing Dictionary).
No doubt, we were in need of both of those! For me, sending my daughter a world away at the age of 16, and for her, going a world away! Before that, really never being apart from her family her entire life! We have both discussed that we are glad we did not know what we were really in for!
We have realized that God gives the amount of faith you need little by little to get where He wants us to be! TOTAL faith in Him!
The day she left, we were both like scared, cowardly baby birds that really had not tried to fly out of the nest yet! She was thrown into a world of Independence and chaos and I was thrown into a world of loneliness, fear, and desperation for HER! Somehow the same and yet so totally different! We still required the same thing, 'Courageous Faith' in the only one who could supply our needs. I could not look to ANYONE but God to keep her and sustain her, and she did not have me to protect her and direct her! We BOTH had to call on the same Heavenly Father we know so well!
Her time with Malaria was a time of faith growth for both of us. The phone call that I received informing me of her illness, left me feeling more helpless than I had EVER felt in my life! Even in childbirth, you have people around to help you even though you are the only one who can actually "birth" the baby! All I wanted to do was stroke her hair, find a way to bring her fever down, lay my hands on her and pray. Not possible! She wanted to lay her head on my lap, ask me for a drink of water and for me to place another blanket on her shivering body. Not possible! So where do you go?! The only place we had! Once again, our Heavenly Father! I cried out for HOURS for her healing! For God to comfort her and somehow be for her what she wanted me to be for her. To take away her fear and calm her anxious heart. She, as best as she could, asked God to bring peace to her heart and be all that she needed. She needed Him to be her strength while she was weak. The next morning, she woke up out of her sick bed, and walked to villages and was for the most part, all better. She lacked a little strength physically but within a day, that was fully back also! God was MORE than I could have been for her and He was more than I could be for me!
My fears slowly began to fade as I continued to walk this 'Courageous Faith' journey. Each week, I worried less until all the sudden, I worried no more! My daughter stepped out everyday not knowing if she would make it through the day! The physical challenges alone, was somewhere she had never been before! The safety issues, well...neither of us like to go there! However, surrounded by strangers who could not understand her day in and day out, something inside of her rose up! She became able to trust that although nobody around her could promise her total safety, her earthly father was no where to be found, but her Heavenly Father was EVERYWHERE! We both continued to see that our only possible way to not only SURVIVE but THRIVE was found in the trust that our loving God would supply our EVERY need!
As we look back, it was almost 3 months ago that we met at the airport again after the 6 week journey. The unity we talk about in "Courageous Faith" is simply amazing! The testimony of God's faithfulness on both of our parts, puts us in awe! We both began to understand what it truly means to have Jesus as our one and only! He put us BOTH in a place where He was all we had! Now, we both find ourselves in sadness sometimes, because we see that "comforts" of this culture can make us less dependant on Him. We are looking to Him to take us to a deeper place and to realize that He IS all we need ALL the time! As we lose our home in 5 short weeks, and really no plan as of yet, where we will lay our heads, we are reminded once again, that He is all we have! I am so glad that He chose to bring us through our Journey to Africa so we could little by little, day by day, and week by week, see His faithfulness! Now, although our lives our going to drastically change, He has supplied us with that "Courageous Faith" that we will need to carry on!
Thriving NOT striving! Only one way that is possible! "Courageous Faith" in our all knowing God!
