Small Steps

11/2/17        Kevin             28

The young man on the sidewalk has seen a lot of life - and death - in his 28 years, having served several tours in Afghanistan.  Despite his church upbringing and belief in God he has come to the conclusion that we are nothing more than the grass that grows and prospers for a while, only to wilt away and decompose out of existence.

Kevin and I talked a while about his experiences, and he gradually warmed up to the conversation.  His time overseas dealing with poverty and life and death situations in combat gave him a general sense of the pettiness and vanity of American cultural values such as our preoccupation with materialism, and he generally lumped religion in the same category. 

 

He said his experiences hadn’t left him bitter or struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome, but that he has always been a reserved person and just didn’t want to undergo the disappointment that comes with getting his hopes up too high.  

I could see how that would make him question the hope that religion claims to offer, so I shared my experiences of how faith is something that doesn’t happen overnight.  Like a muscle, it grows with exercise.  Our faith relationship with God deepens over time and with experience, so all we really need do is keeping stepping forward with small steps of faith.  As we do we learn to trust God more and more, and He trusts more and more of Himself to us.

While I understand that to the unbeliever, what we call being “born again” often looks like a huge, irrational leap of faith.  And as a Christian I understand it to be a gift of God that we were incapable of, because the dead in sin cannot resurrect their own souls.  “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” (Eph 2)

So is it helpful to call an unbeliever like Kevin to small acts of faith when what he really needs is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit that comes when we repent and believe the Gospel?   Are those who are “dead in sin” capable of even small acts of faith without the Holy Spirit within?

I believe they can, because even though the Holy Spirit may not yet be dwelling within the unbeliever, He can still influence them from the outside.  I believe God rewards even the smallest acts of faith, from cracking open a Bible to the first feeble expressions of prayer.  Romans 10 says “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” and, most always, the listener has performed some small act of faith that put them in the presence of God’s Word long enough for it to sink in.

Even Kevin, reserved as he is, told me “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.  I never talk about religion!”  I believe his willingness to stop and talk with me was a small act of faith.  And as he walked away away saying “You really got me thinking now!”, it’s one he will not soon forget.