Local Disbelief

Intro: Continuing with the Making Love...Last series at my church (Granger Community Church, Indiana), we are in Week 4 and continue to practice the three daily challenges: words of gratitude, acts of service and awareness of God's love for ourselves. This week, i'm adding a bit of focus to scripture that touches on our faith and belief in God. Thanks for staying with me on this journey. Again, these are just my thoughts - they're young, growing and fragile - so be kind.

Prior to returning home, Jesus was sweeping the countryside, healing the sick, casting out demons, sharing parables and raising the dead...like he does. He was amazing crowds and gaining followers. Yet, when he begins to share his message in Nazareth, people get offended (vs.3). Seriously? The same people that KNOW him, know who his family is and probably knew of all his favorite places to play as a child. Maybe some of them have even bought his carpentry. I don't know. I do know they were closer to knowing Christ than the rest of the country and yet were the farthest from believing the truth.

Well, in v4 Jesus kinda calls them out on their unbelief (NLT version), their lack of faith (NIV version). In fact, he was amazed by it (vs.6). It would be easy to judge them here, easy to say they're a bunch of losers and "i can't believe they can't see how amazing Jesus is!" And just when that thought crosses my mind, another one emerges: Jesus has called me out on my unbelief, too. Shazam.

My life is dotted with unbelief, with rocky lumps of faith in my throat that i was often never eager to swallow. I can confess that sometimes my faith is built more on what is seen rather than what is felt (spiritual). If God is trying to do something and my lack of faith stifles the spirit of Christ within me, i'm no better than the people of Nazareth. They took offense, but i think Jesus was amazed because they knew better. They KNEW him. While the Nazarenes grew up with Jesus, i have the indispensable work of the Bible written before me so that i could experience all of God's story. So....what's MY excuse?

Maybe i'm just not letting go. Maybe Christ's words don't offend my spirit, but they do offend the things i hold closer to me than him. Maybe i don't want to believe Jesus because it means letting go of something comfortable for something radical and unknown, unseen. I don't think we're always ready for a radical leap of faith, but God puts things in perfect motion. Don't you want to look back and say you jumped?

Despite its comedic religious faux pauxs, the movie Bruce Almighty has always been a favorite for me. Jim Carrey (playing Bruce, who gets to be God for a few days) learns a few hard lessons about fulfillment, success and happiness. His character gets it all, but doesn't really have what matters. He was looking for the tangible, what could be seen rather than the smaller, unseen acts of love and faith around him. The movie comes to an end with this remarkable simple message: "Be the miracle." i sense that God's urging us to dig in, to answer the call toward a believable faith. Arriving here, we crush disbelief and miracles do happen.

Created over 2 years ago