#145of365 #FaithBites #Faith Journey

Before we get started, I wanted to send special prayers to all those undergoing surgeries and health issues. May the Lord bless you, your family, and the entire medical staff. I also want to send a prayer of thanks to all of the teachers, administrators, and support staff as school across the country are done for the school year. What an amazing season of change. And now, onto FaithBites…

Tweet or Dissertation

The Doctorate Degree. For many, the phrase means an expert in their field. For some, it means long hard work to become that expert. But the word that most thing about is Dissertation. That excruciatingly long and difficult culmination of all your research, your studying, and your sacrifice. For those of you who don’t know, I am in the new process of qualifying exams mixed with the dissertation. Last week I had several people tell me the best dissertation is a done dissertation. I’m had some that say just think about it as a long report. I’ve had others who say, it doesn’t matter if it’s junk, just do it.

Yesterday as I was writing and getting flustered about how much work I have to do, I thought, as I often do about faith and God. Now, I wasn’t around when the bible was written. I don’t know what people were thinking as they started to put God’s word to parchment. My theory though is they didn’t sit down to write this massive book we call the bible. In fact, we know that the Bible had many authors, across a long span of time. The authors wrote down God’s word. From the shortest book of Obadiah (21 verses) to the longest book Jeremiah (42,000 words), the authors wrote what needed to be written, when it needs to be.

You are probably trying to figure out where this is going. The point of this and the reference to a dissertation is in our faith, we don’t need to think of every single possible way to share God. We don’t need to be experts in the Bible from front to back. We don’t need to have our faith down to a 30-second elevator speech that is polished. We need to be ready to take our faith journey in baby steps, like faithbites here, and then grow it to the dissertation of our lives.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;” – Psalm 118:22

“So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
will never be stricken with panic.” – Isaiah 28:16

“From Judah will come the cornerstone,
    from him the tent peg,
from him the battle bow,
    from him every ruler.” – Zechariah 10:4

As with any form of communication, from a tweet to a dissertation, there has to be a solid idea or purpose. In our faith, that is Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone of our faith journey. Through him, we build a sure foundation. He is our cornerstone. We take this rejected stone and build upon it. We listen to him, we walk in his footsteps, and we keep communication. Every time we pray, every time we share his word, every time we walk in his footsteps, we add a page or chapter to our Dissertation. Some days the writing comes easy, others it is a challenge. While the baby steps are needed, it doesn’t mean we can’t take them. We need to pray. We need to share his word. We need to walk in his footsteps. The baby steps don’t happen with us working on it. While we aren’t setting off to write a Magnus opus, when we look back, if we follow his word; we will have a life that is more powerful than any dissertation. We will have multiple his disciples among the world.

Now, I don’t know if this will help me get this dissertation done, but I know through faith, prayer, and love, Jesus will guide me through all the pages of my FaithJourney.

Are you willing to see your faith journey as small steps? Can you see that you don’t need to have your life all planned out or perfect at the beginning?

I am willing and able to see with the help of God.