Posting this excerpt of a sermon I will be preaching in about two hours at Faith Community Church in Franklin, TN. The photo I’m connecting to this post is not representation of where they meet.

There are times when our lives make sense. When strands come together and we know. God is there. He did it. And walking by faith is easy.

For nearly the first half of my life of following Jesus, faith and guidance were easy to the point of naiveté.

There were three strands in my life I knew with no questions/no doubts that God had led me. My marriage, our calling into ministry, our calling overseas. God had spoken. The end.

I was pretty sure I had the guidance thing down. I mean - I had heard from God. No question. No doubt.

Then we left Mongolia and what I thought were clear principles begin to crumble. There was no clarity. And, more disturbingly, we hadn’t heard from God about this. I found myself weeping on a front porch while living at a friends house, watching people drive to work with no clue what was coming next.

Sometimes life fails to fit in theological boxes.

David had this experience. Probably more than once. But most certainly as he sat in a cave, in the dark, afraid of being found by an insane, blood-thirsty king. A king who had just slaughtered an entire village of priests who’d given him some help.

Fear and uncertainty had to be real at the moment.

And there he wrote what ended up being the 27th Psalm

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear. The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid.

Faith is a funny thing. We think sometimes that having faith means that I have all the answers. That I understand the details. That I know where God is leading me and how he is leading me. And why He is leading me.

But that’s not actually the life of faith.

The life of faith is made up of two parts.

• making a choice to seek God above everything else (Psalm 27:4)
• actively waiting (Psalm 27:14)

And I don’t have to understand. The dots don’t have to connect. In fact, they probably won’t.

So make the decision that knowing God is the one thing that ultimately matters.

Then wait for Him to twist all of those unexplained events of life into one beautiful, strong cord of purpose, glory, and usefulness.

Because the Hebrew idea for waiting means to twist. Like twisting cords to make a rope.

The disparate pieces of our lives are not random. We wait for our good Father whom we seek.

We’ve made up our mid to rely on Him. To count on Him. To trust Him to catch us at that terrifying and thrilling moment we leap into the water. We need for him to collect all the pieces.

And we wait because sometimes all the pieces are not yet available.

There’s one more color needed to perfect what he is creating. He is making something new, strong, and beautiful - for an entirely different and better purpose.

There is meaning in the pieces we don’t understand.

Because even though they don’t connect or make sense now - they will. Beyond our wildest expectations.

Decide. And wait.

Those are our actions in living an abundant life of faith.