The African impala is a dear-like animal that can jump to a height of over 3 metres and cover a distance greater than 11. Yet it can be kept in any zoo enclosure with a 1 metre-high wall. Why? Because it can’t peer over the wall, it’s not tall enough, and it wont jump if it can’t see where its feet will land.
That’s like a lot of us—we wont take a leap of faith unless we can see where we’ll land—and so we never experience God’s miracles, never experience the adventure that the Christian life is supposed to be.
Two or three times now God has brought me to a point where I had to jump from the enclosure. Now, I’m not your model of courageous faith—each time I’ve been hesitant and cautious. But one story is worth passing on.
About three years ago, during a few days break in Tasmania, Merryn and I prayed seriously about my career path. I’d taken my radio job at the time as far as I could, and I’d felt a stirring for some time to write and speak more. We finally decided it was time to for me to take a leap—to leave my job and trust God to bring my feet down in the right place.
I had a lot of doubts. I doubted my ability. I doubted my relative youth. I wondered where our money come from. But I put in my resignation.
Around this time the youth pastor at our church asked me to lead a retreat for his youth leaders. We drove to a nice beachside setting, and after some teaching I sent the youth leaders away for some time with God. I wrote up a list of five Bible passages on some butchers paper, asked them to pick one, take it away, read it and ask God to speak to them through it. I thought I should do the exercise too, so I picked the last verse on the list—from the sixth chapter of the book of John. I still had my fears about my new direction. I wasn’t sure where my work was going to come from. Then I opened up this passage and read these words of Jesus: ‘Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.’
I had hoped God would speak to the youth leaders. Instead he spoke to me, giving me a promise he’d bring me the work he wanted me to do.
Not long after that I received a very interesting email. It was from a reader of Alive Magazine, for whom I write a regular column. ‘Dear Sheridan,’ it began, ‘I can't remember if I've emailed before to thank you for your articles in Alive Magazine but on reading [the latest] I was prompted to be in touch…’ After some further comments the email ended, ‘I also wanted to say that if, either at the moment, or in the next year or two you find yourself with a book burning within that you want to bring to reality, I'd be very interested to talk with you. Sincerely, Sally Smith, Commissioning Editor, Scripture Union Publications.’
The result of that conversation was a book called Unseen Footprints. It won the 2006 Australian Christian Book of The Year Award, and it will be released this month in the UK and next month in the US.
‘Work which the Son of Man will give you, Sheridan.’
Not long after that email, the folks at Compassion Australia approached me. They asked if I would become the national coordinator for Compassion Day—a one day radio event that raises sponsors for children in poverty. I took it on and have had the privilege of watching people like you release children in India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Indonesia from poverty.
‘Work which the Son of Man will give you, Sheridan.’
Not long after Compassion’s approach I had a call from Jeff Millar, then manager of Melbourne’s 89.9 Light FM. ‘Would you be interested in doing a Sunday night talk show for us?’ he asked. A similar conversation ensued with Sydney’s FM103.2 and the result was a 10 year dream coming to reality—Open House—now a national program.
‘Work which the Son of Man will give you, Sheridan.’
I am not your model of faith. I hesitate to jump from the enclosure. I share this story to encourage you that if God is calling you to jump, to relinquish what you have and take a risky leap into the unknown, he will indeed guide your feet to an exhilarating place.
© 2007 Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker, broadcaster and author of Unseen Footprints: Encountering the divine along the journey of life (Scripture Union, 2005). www.thethoughtfactory.net
Comments (1)
Francis Schaeffer in his book "Art and the Bible" says this on the back cover. For the Christian the arts can be a source of joy, a symbol of the creativity that marks the manishness of man, man himself being made in the image of God the Creator. For the Christian artist the sky is not the limit. Because he can distinguish between reality and illusion, he is the one whose imagination can "fly beyond the stars." I think we can apply this to Christianity in general and in fact we should. The Christian can fly because he knows from whence he came and even if they fail, they know where home is. Having said that, of course our faith is not existential because we have a object to our faith or knowledge precedes faith in other words. If knowledge does not precede faith then we are exercising blind faith of the existential systems so prevalent and dominant in our postmodern post-Christian 21st century. I think one of the weaknesses of Christianity today is that many people have an existential faith or a faith where their understanding of what confronts them from within their own system is vague. Adolf Schaltter the great German theologian says this, "if we don't know the historic Jesus, then we don't know who we are." For myself, no matter what I do and I must try to excell in the thing of God of course. But if I stuff up, I know who my father is, who my redeemer is and I know who I am. Of course we don't just go out into the big wotld and act willy nilly because we must understand the Bible as our rule of authority. We must also remember that behind our wonderful Bible as Schaeffer wrote is the God who is there who has spoken to us in propositional verbalised revelation. I will conclude with a statement by Adolf Schlatter.
It is the historical objective that should govern our conceptual work exclusively and completely, stretching our perceptive faculties to the limit. We turn away decisively from ourselves and our time to what was found in the men through whom the church came into being. Our main interest should be the thought as it was conceived by them and the truth that was valid for them. We want to see and obtain a thorough grasp of what happened historically and existed in another time. This is the internal disposition upon which the success of the work depends, the commitment which must consistently be renewed as the work proceeds. (History of the Christ, 18)
God bless you Sheridan on a great site for tremendous insight into the God who is there.
Posted by Hona Wikeepa | July 15, 2007 5:51 PM
Posted on July 15, 2007 17:51