Scripture:
Hebrews 11:1-3 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
2 Cor 4:17,18 For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that is far beyond comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Luke 1:37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Reflection:
- Have you ever been late for a class? I had to commute to college, so depending upon traffic there was more than one occasion where I found myself sneaking into the last row of a classroom hoping my professor didn’t take notice.
- This happened one day to a young mathematician student who was attending the University of California, Berkley. His name was George Dantzig. One day George was late to a class and noticed 2 math problems written out on the chalkboard. He wrongly assumed they were the homework for the week as his teacher would often give the students difficult problems to solve. George wrote down the problems in his notebook and after class, he got to work.
- As he began to dissect the mathematical equations, he realized they were more difficult than others that had been given up until that time, yet after some hard work and some creative thinking, he finished up the equations and turned in his assignment. Several weeks later there came a knock at his dormitory door. Much to his surprise, his mathematics professor was standing at his door. Smiling and quiet ecstatic, he explained that George had solved what had been thought of as 2 unsolvable mathematics problems. The professor had put them on the board as a point of discussion, never intending his students to solve them. George, not knowing them to be unsolvable problems, had done something that hundreds of mathematicians down through the years had never been able to do.
- Later in George’s life he returned to Berkley as a mathematics professor. He would often say to his students, “had someone told him that the problems were unsolvable, I would have certainly failed. I thought there was an answer, and as it turns out, I was right!”
- This story of George reminds me of a young David. Had he listened to those around him, he probably would have not been able to defeat Goliath. Had he gone about fighting Goliath in the traditional way, he certainly would have failed. Some times not seeing all that there is to see is actually best. Faith never lets us see the entire path, only the first few steps. But faith that there is a way forward can motivate us to take risks that we might not have taken had we had all the facts!
- “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets– who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
- We cannot know how God will lead us, but by simply walking by faith with our Lord, the impossible becomes possible, and the unsolvable finds it’s solution in Him
Recent Comments