Better

I got to the famous "hall of faith" in Hebrews 11 in my morning devotions today.  As the author recounts the stories of such luminaries as Noah, Abraham, and Moses, I am struck by the great decisions of faith they each made to trust God in the face of overwhelming reasons to doubt Him.  The lunacy of building a boat in the middle of a desert.  The lunacy of an elderly and childless man being told his descendents would be uncountable.  The lunacy of a prince giving up the good life for one of suffering and misunderstanding.

 

It gets harder to exercise this kind of radical faith the older you become and the more domestic responsibilities you take on.  Idealism is easier in one's youthfulness, single-mindedness harder when you have a wife and baby and mortgage and career to look out for.  I am deeply challenged by the chapter I read this morning.

 

What helps me is to remember that, at least in the mind of the author, none of these great people of faith considered their great acts of faith any sort of sacrifice.  In our minds, it is a sacrifice to build a boat or wait for a child or give up royalty, just as it is to take a lower-paying job or live in a slummier neighborhood or forgo a higher standard of living. 

 

But in the mind of the author of Hebrews, and in the heart of our God, such a faith lifestyle is no sacrifice.  Each of these people described above, and all the others listed in this chapter, did their faith thing not out of an obligation to sacrifice something better for something worse but out of  a desire to forgo something inferior for something superior.  The word "better" is an oft-repeated one in this book, and it reminds me that to pursue faith radically – to pursue God radically – is the better way.  It affords the better security, the greater riches, and the ultimate end prize. 

 

The promise of the good life in this world is that it is better.  But from reading Hebrews 11, I know better.