#141of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney

What Do I (or any of us) Stand For?

Yesterday, I was mowing the grass, listening to Spotify as I usually do, and Some Nights by Fun came on. I haven’t listened to that song in a year or so. Every time I do, I’m reminding how beautiful and thought-provoking it is.

Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck
Some nights, I call it a draw
Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they’d just fall off
But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I’m still not sure what I stand for
What do I stand for?
What do I stand for?
Most nights, I don’t know anymore

Life is hard. This world is a crazy, messed up, place. We have demands on us all the time. We have people telling us God doesn’t exist. That faith is wrong. That religion is faulty. That those people want to kill us. That way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. That people get what they deserve. Then I’m over here like: Love God, Love People. It is as if I’m speaking an ancient dead language no one understands. Then someone does something sinful and says I’m a good Christian. Some nights, I just don’t know anymore. “Try twice as hard and I’m half as liked”. Powerful stuff. But faith, faith remains and grows.

“But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John” – Luke 7:30

“In him we were also chosen,^[a] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,” – Ephesians 1:11

Many days, when I get into this mood, I think about the 80’s show “The Greatest American Hero”. It’s an awesome show, well at least it was when I was little. It was about an everyday guy who found an alien super suit. He put it on but had no instruction manual. He didn’t know how the suit worked and tried to learn it every day while doing good things. To me, that’s the bible. It’s a super suit filled with history, examples. stories, and how to live from God himself. But as we talked yesterday, it’s hard to fathom God, so understanding his super suit (the bible) feels like not having an instruction manual. I wish there was a companion guide that helped me understand it better. Helped me know what I stand for. That guide is Jesus and all the people he as put in my life. I know it is part of the journey. I know through Christ, “some nights, I will always win”.

Do you know what you stand for? Do you know how to use your super suit? Do you believe that God will, in time, show you your path?

I am learning to with the help of God.