Beneath my calm exterior, I worry about lots of things, just like everyone else. I worry about my kids and the choices they face. I worry about my wife, when is she going to run out of patience with me. I fret about the team at work, afraid that I will let them down. I walk in fear that somehow my acts of unfaith will deter God's pursuit of a relationship with me.
In each instance, I can intellectually explain each party's roles and the split between the responsibility that one carries and leaves to another. I know there are lines, but I just can emotionally go to the end of the conclusions. What happens if my assumptions are wrong? Who might lose, and how badly? Is there a limit to human endurance? Do people run out of patience and grace? Is there a burden one must carry because they are an important link in a chain?
It is so easy to take on a larger, i.e. more important, roles than anyone asks. I know that we can share things. I understand that others are willing to pick up their loads. I know in my head that others have amazing quantities of grace and mercy. However, what does my heart say?
God repeatedly states that he is God and there are no others. The references are many, but. . . and the word will not go away . . . what if he does not do what he said he would do? What do we do then? Who is going to carry the load?
Decisions always carry an element of faith. Trust that the consistency of another will continue in the future. Understanding that one will again play a role to which they committed themselves. Confidence in another person's character and abilities coming through again – just as they did yesterday and again today.
Having faith means exercising and living faith, otherwise it is just words! “So tend to your knitting,” (Romans 14.12) is more that just a clich?, it is a call to real life.
