Do you remember the story of Lot and Abraham and how out there in the desert their two families got to be so big and unwieldy that they had a hard time living in the same valley? Abraham told Lot (because the herdsmen couldn’t be at peace with each other) that for the sake of the family they ought to part ways. Abraham was the bigger man in this conversation, more faithful, so he invited Lot to choose his property. Lot could go in whichever direction he wanted to go in. If he wanted the land on the left, Abraham would go right. If he wanted to go right, Abraham would go left.
Lot makes his choice and it tells us what kind of guy he is. He is the kind of guy who cannot see what he cannot see. You know those people? The late adopters? They are the last ones who get on board with your building campaign or with any new idea — the last ones to see what God might be up to. They are Lot’s people. They cannot see what they cannot see.
Lot takes what is right in front of him and Abraham takes the land further off, over the horizon, which happens to be where the promises of God are. My friend, Ed Dickens, calls it “over-the-horizon faith.” Don’t you love that? That’s the kind of faith I want. Over-the-horizon faith.
In John Wesley’s notes on this story, he talks about how to “trust God farther than you can see.”
Man, I want that kind of faith. I want to trust God farther than I can see. You ought to write that question down and take it with you today and let it change you. Use it in your confessions and conversations.
Do you trust God farther than you can see?
Because here’s the thing: God is doing things out there. Things we won’t see right off, things that aren’t obvious. But this is our promise: He is at work! Isaiah says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19-21).
My UMC friends, do you have the vision to see beyond this current desert we’re in? Do you have a vision for what can be, just over the horizon? Have you lifted your gaze above the current crisis to what can be on the other side of 2020?
I am embarrassed to admit, actually, just how recently it has occurred to me that I ought to be praying for my own faith, for the character of it and the density of it and the life of it. It just hadn’t occurred to me for far too much of my walk with Christ that if faith is all that connects me to Jesus and if faith is the only thing of any value I bring into my work, my parenting, my ministry, and if I can’t conjure it up on my own because even my faith is a gift from God, then I had better start praying for it. I had better get to shaking the gates of heaven on behalf of my own faith, praying for God to give me more of it, to increase my heart for him and to have more of him in my heart. To be able to trust farther than I can see.
Isn’t that all any of us really wants to know? How do I get Jesus deeper into my heart? How do I burn like I did at first? How do I find my first love?
Brothers and sisters in ministry, if we are going to make it through our present reality in the UMC, we’re going to need a faith that trusts farther than what we can see.
Ray Jackson, my friend and partner Haitian missions says, “I have often thought that the miracles of Jesus were to validate his Sonship or divinity. But now, I also believe they have been preserved for all time to validate his unlimited power to make all things new.”
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up … It arises!
Listen: None of us knows exactly how it will all turn out (and you can fill in the blank here with just about any question that’s on your mind) but chances are, Lot and Abraham will go their separate ways. One of them will settle in a land close by, one they can see, one that requires little imagination or faith. The other will be given a good land over the horizon and more offspring than can be counted. I hope I have sense enough to be in that latter camp.
Meanwhile, we wait, and here’s how I suggest we spend our time while we wait:
Repent for your own short-sightedness. Repent for being among the widows who cried over Tabitha’s death, rather than being the disciple who had the nerve to stand in the middle of the room, ask a dead thing to stand up, and expect it to happen.
Pray and live prophetically for future of the Church. The Church in the U.S. is starving for people willing to pray and speak boldly into both church and culture. We starve for prophets unafraid of being a peculiar people — holy, chosen, strange in the sense of being … well … strange. People with faith enough to say, “I see something beyond the obvious here, something that ought to change your sense of reality.” We need prophets who keep us focused on life beyond the horizon …
Actively practice your gifts. Every day between now and May 15 (and then every day after that), get up and go look for lost people. Every day, get up and lean into the means of grace that make us Methodist. Every day, pray like crazy for faith to manage the hard conversations that will surely come in the days ahead. Every day, use only the best ingredients to build your ministry. Don’t let your palate become de-sensitized to the delicacy of this fine gospel we serve.
Don’t quit. Because Jesus has not quit on us. He is still drawing this world back to the other side of Genesis three, because for Jesus, the world is not the problem. The world is the prize.
We have not yet succeeded, but we keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won us. Stay in it and keep your eyes on the horizon. Good things are coming!
