Dear Reader, in case you are just now turning in, I was raised by a military man. Daddy used to say he was raised by the Army and the Methodist Church. He was then, and I still am now, proud that Daddy didn’t wait for the recruitment call following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Daddy voluntarily enlisted in the Army in September of that same year.
Have you ever been recruited, Dear Reader? For a sports team, a college, or a job? Our niece was telling us at Christmas that her son, Henry, began being recruited by local basketball teams in second grade. (He’s a junior in high school now.)
I was amazed at how early recruitment offers are being extended. It probably doesn’t matter if we’re eight, eighteen, or eighty, receiving a recruitment call can be all sorts of flattering.
When our son was recruited for a college music program, and later for his first Worship Arts Director position, none of us knew all the right questions to ask. Neither did we anticipate the risks and challenges he would encounter.
I wonder if the NFL draft picks for 2023 know all the questions, risks, and challenges that may lay ahead for them, or are they acting out of “blind faith?”
I think the Lord is still making recruitment calls. It can be easy to get caught up in a sermon, a Bible study, or praise service and enthusiastically answer what we perceive to be God’s call on our lives. Whether it’s from devotion, obedience, or sometimes the fervor of the moment, our responses usually come out of well-meaning spirits.
There are definitely times when the Lord extends a “blind faith” recruitment call. He calls us to the “what” without sharing when, where, how, or why. Jesus certainly recruited His disciples and expected them to respond with blind faith.
Is an expectation of blind faith a test, or just one step in our spiritual journeys? What do you think, Dear Reader? The Apostle Paul, and writer of the Book of Hebrews stress the importance of blind faith:
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7 MEV
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Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.
Hebrews 11:1 CEV
The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, gives us a picture of a whole other kind of faith. It’s the kind of faith that says, “Yes, here I am, Lord!” to God’s recruitment call, despite knowing risks and dangers it may include. I call it “anyway faith.”
Isaish’s enthusiastic anyway faith shows up in chapter six of his accounting. A few observations while reading Isaiah’s text made me sit up and take notice:
- From chapter one, it’s obvious that Israel was in a hot mess . . . again; God’s recruitment call to Isaiah wasn’t going to be a picnic.
- Isaiah seems to have responded immediately and enthusiatically without asking the Lord about the benefits package it included.
- Isaiah had already been in the faces of the powers that be with warnings of doom and gloom: it rarely ended with smiles and handshakes.
Blind faith says we only see the tip of the iceberg and holler, “Full steam ahead!” Devotion, obedience, insanity? We trust God for details, big and small.
Anyway faith sees below the surface, grabs a life preserver, yells, “I’m your gal, Lord!” and jumps in . . . anyway.
If you’ve been walking with Jesus for a while, Dear Reader, you’ve probably excercised both blind faith and anyway faith. Both help us grow in our relationships with the Lord.
For me, when we have an inkling into what God’s recruitment call involves, and say, “Yes!” anyway, I believe He smiles a little bigger over His child. Perhaps He sees godly wisdom and discernment mixed in with our faith and knows He can trust us with a little more.
Dear Reader, we are all on journeys. Some of them meet at the crossroads of blind faith and anyway faith.
I’d love to hear about God’s latest recruitment call on your life. Do you tend to lean more toward blind faith or anyway faith? How is the Lord using that faith to draw you closer as you respond to His recruitment call?
