Silence and Action IV (Haas)

... and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.

 - From Mark 4

Faith is so frustrating to non-believers. People want somebody to do something, but here go those Christians again, with their praying, but doing nothing.

Even within the Church, there is a contingent of those that really disdain a life of prayer, solitude, service, and teaching.

I had been a virtual 20-hours a week servant in a local church, for years. I was on paid staff, but only for about ten hours per week. I had hoped to be asked to serve on some committees, invited to teach; to "climb the ladder," if you will. But it never happened. I asked one of the half-dozen full-time pastors why that is. He said something like "Gordon, you don't seem to have any evidence of being successful."

This blew me away. From an organization that follows an itinerant preacher?

We want to see people doing something. We don't even want a particular result. We just want to see the "face time." I had a boss once, who commented to me that "Gordon, you get good results, but nothing ever seems to bother you, and it drives me crazy!" I didn't appear to be under any stress. Real doers are always urgent about something.

In the parable, a gardener just scatters seed along the ground. And from then on, he just sleeps, eats, and keeps an eye on it. That's all. Yet, it grows. The gardener doesn't know how it happened. But later on in the season, he enjoys his harvest. 

It takes a lot of faith to scatter seed and then wait. We're so tempted to kill the goose to see if we can figure out how she makes those golden eggs. At least then we'd be doing something.

People of faith need to remember this. If your response to tragedy is to pray and think . . . then make sure it's based on faith. Go in there today, and pray that shooters are stopped, before they can do damage. But from now on . . . believe it will come true.

And then be looking for the little blessings in the forms of opportunities, where you can actually change the lives of people that might become shooters. This is not the "do something" that scoffers are talking about . . . but they're going to have to be okay with it, because it works.