Are You Foolish Enough for Faith?
[This the latest installment of a column called Better Living, which I write for our local community newspaper.]

God is looking for a few fools. Are you willing to be one of them?

My wife, our two kids, and I arrived in Clermont County, where we still live, thirteen years ago. We came to start a new congregation. We'd been called to do that by our denomination and we thought it was what God wanted us to do. The denomination provided us with a house–later purchased by the congregation we started, Friendship Church, and later still, purchased by Ann and me. For a few years, our denomination also gave some financial support.

We knew a total of six people in the area. There was no congregation. There was no church building. There was no church bank account.

Often, in those early days, people spoke to me in tones usually reserved for those whose minds have been clouded by dementia. People thought I was crazy to have left a secure and fulfilling pastorate of a thriving congregation in northwestern Ohio in order to start a new church with no certainty of success.

The ones most convinced of my craziness were other pastors. Most seemed convinced that there was no way a new church could be started in Amelia or Clermont County. They either thought that there were too many churches already, not enough people, or that nobody would want a Lutheran church around. "It'll never get off the ground," one told me, "but I guess you should be credited for trying."

All these people were right. I was crazy and with God's help, I'll always stay a little crazy. The God made known to the world through Jesus Christ gets things done through people who are crazy enough to follow Him. The first century preacher and evangelist Paul told a church he'd started that he and his colleagues, "...are fools for the sake of Christ" (First Corinthians 4:10).

But here's where people were wrong about my sanity. They all assumed that there are places where God is absent, situations in which God is impotent or incapable or unwilling to bless us. But as long as we're "crazy" enough to follow God, God can reach us with His blessings.

In the Bible, ancient King David writes, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol [the place of the dead in Hebrew thought], You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me..." (Psalm 139:7-10).

And Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, spectacularly promises all who dare to follow Him: "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

Do you have any places or circumstances in your life that could be improved with God's presence?

A marriage that isn't working?

A child you can't seem to reach?

A dream that neither goes away or seems within your grasping?

Whatever the circumstance, be crazy enough to believe that God can be with you and cares about you and will help you. Call on God in the Name of Jesus Christ for His help and presence. Promise that you'll be faithful to God and then find a church home where you can be encouraged in your faith. God will always answer those kinds of prayers.

God doesn't promise that we'll be successful in every thing we try to do with his help. Our prayers won't always be answered in the ways we envision. But we can know that God is for us, no matter what happens. I believe, for example, that God still would have been with me and loved me even if He hadn't caused Friendship Church to grow and to thrive.

But no matter how personally strong we may be, no matter how resourceful, intelligent, or physically durable, until we're crazy enough to lean on God, we'll never experience all that this life has to offer. And until we ask the God Who comes to us in Jesus Christ into our lives, we'll never experience how great it is to live each day knowing that forever and always, we belong to an eternal God!