By Faith, Not By Sight

Paul says we walk by faith and not by sight. I want to sit with that word walk for a moment. He does not say we leap by faith. He does not say we sprint by faith. We walk. Faith is an everyday, ordinary, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other kind of trust. It is not the dramatic moment on the mountaintop — though those come. It is the Tuesday morning when you do not know how things will work out, and you get up anyway, and you trust anyway, and you take the next step anyway. Hebrews 11 gives us a gallery of these walkers. Abraham left his homeland not knowing where he was going. The text makes a point of that — not knowing. He did not have a map. He had a promise. And he walked. Noah built an ark in a place that had never seen rain. Moses left the palace of Egypt for a wilderness. These were not people who had all the answers. They were people who had a God they trusted more than they trusted their circumstances. That is the definition of faith — being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see. Not certainty about outcomes. Certainty about the One who holds outcomes. The anchor of faith is not a feeling. It is a person. And that person has proven himself reliable.