Fresh Start Devotionals

Heroes Sometimes, when I study the heroes of the faith-when I see their faith and determination—I begin to feel like a spiritual midget. Take Noah, for example. He was willing to invest 120 years building an ark because God told him a flood was coming. He withstood the ridicule of others and navigated through his own self-doubt to complete his assignment. Amazing. Especially when I think about how a single word of criticism can paralyze me. How would you have responded to Noah if you asked him what he was doing? Imagine the dialogue—”So, Noah, what ya doin?” “I’m building an ark?” “An ark, what in the world is an ark?” You’d ask. “It’s a boat big enough to house at least a pair of all the earth’s species.” “OK, but why are you building it.” “Haven’t you heard? The flood is coming?” Noah replies. “The flood. What’s a flood.” “It’s when the waters rise because of an excessive amount of rain?” “Rain,” you’d say, “what’s rain?” After explaining the meteorological phenomena of rain to a person whose never seen it, Noah would explain to you that he knows it doesn’t make sense, but that God told him to do what he’s doing. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure I’d hurry home and tell my wife about the nutcase that was hearing voices and was building a floating zoo because the world is coming to an end. Imagine taking a hike and stumbling across another bible hero, Abraham as he hovered over his son with a knife blade in his hand. Could he say anything to you that would be a logical explanation for what he was doing? Don’t get me wrong-both of these men were just men, and they had times in their lives where they utterly failed God and didn’t follow His will for their lives. But in these cases, they weren’t “hearing voices,” they were hearing the voice-and they were doing what He said. And that’s why they are heroes of the faith. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).