(Baby) Steps of Faith

I’ll never forget the first blog post I ever wrote. I actually wrote it without being sure I would ever share it with anyone. God was stirring something in my heart and I simply had to get it out. I scrambled to find the right words, but finally reached a place of satisfaction and hit the “save” button.

The final product was messy, but it was real. I felt God nudging me to share it, and eventually gathered enough courage to ask Courtney to read it.

Courtney is my wife and my best friend, but as she read the blog post my stomach knotted up and my face blushed over. I feared embarrassment and failure. I knew she would only offer encouragement, but the only thing I could imagine was rejection and the only thing I could feel was fear.

As she scanned the article my face became hot with sweaty discomfort. After she was finished, she glanced up at me with tears in her eyes.

I instantly feared the worst – “It’s so terrible that I made her cry!”

Thankfully, the opposite was true. She explained that she was so moved by what I wrote that she was crying. I was in disbelief.

That moment changed something inside of me. However small, I had taken a step of faith. A baby step at that. It was a pivotal experience because through that I realized it’s okay to be afraid, embarrassed, uncertain or even confused when stepping out in faith.

It was a revelation to me that you don’t have to reach a certain level of comfort or certainty before taking action on something God has put in your heart.

From that point forward, I resolved to always take the next step of faith, regardless of how I felt about it. To never again allow fear be the deciding factor in any decision or any opportunity. To always remember that baby steps, are just that, baby steps – usually a little shaky and uncertain.

It’s been over two years since I first published that blog post and I have had to re-remember that truth many, many times since then.

Walking by faith isn’t easy. It’s one of those things in life that’s hard to put your finger on. You can’t measure it, you can’t purchase it, you can’t see it and you can’t touch it. But you can experience it. In fact, putting your faith into practice  is practically the only way you can truly know what faith is.

Even though I know that faith isn’t always logical or explainable – it doesn’t stop me from wanting it to be that way. To be honest, I would love a formula for faith. I would love to know how to walk in it without fear of the future. With reckless abandon. With certainty.

I would also love to know where you should draw the line when walking by faith. To know at what point you should say, “that’s impossible.” When you should admit, “that’s too far out of my comfort zone.” When you should stop and say, “there’s no way.”

Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to that. And honestly, I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that – if there is one. What I do know, though, is that faith is more about crossing lines than it is about drawing them. 

Recently, this idea has become very real for my family and I. Over the past several weeks we have been taking baby steps of faith towards an opportunity that God has brought before us. We’ve experienced excitement, fear, and doubt through all of it.

But through the incredible support of our family and friends and through a lot of prayer, we have decided to say, “yes” to that opportunity. In July, we will be relocating to Charlotte, NC so that I can accept a position on staff at Elevation Church as a copywriter.

I don’t know what all steps we will have to take in the future, but I do know that it begins by simply taking the next one. So, as we take the next step I ask for your prayers and support. They mean far more than what I can put into words.

We are so excited to take this step of faith and be a part of the movement of God at Elevation, but we are also incredibly sad to be leaving our friends, family, and church. We have a lot to do over the next several weeks. And although we are both nervous and scared, we are also encouraged and hopeful because of the support behind us and before us.