To Follow the Faithful

It should certainly always be encouraging to read the bible. However, sometimes I look at the incredible faith or our spiritual forefathers and find myself becoming discouraged instead. The trials and triumphs of both the Old and New Testament heros of the faith make the mundane routine of my daily life appear utterly trivial. They lived through and accomplished things almost beyond our comprehension. How, then, could we possibly ever measure up? What could God ever do with my measly little life? I suppose it’s only natural for us to feel this way. Yet, when I take the time to go back and read a passage again I discover a very interesting fact that we usually overlook. Most of those big people in the bible started small. With a few exceptions, they were just regular people whom God plucked out of obscurity to use in a mighty way. They were shepherds, fishermen, tax gatherers, tent makers ... simple folks. Some of them, at times, were even a bit pig-headed, just like us. That gives me more hope for my own life because it indicates that God can take ordinary people and do extraordinary things with them, sometimes even in spite of themselves. Perhaps, rather than a burden, it may be a great blessing to have such outstanding examples in the faithful ones who came before us. So let us not become discouraged. Whoever we are, whatever we’ve done, God offers us the opportunity to start over ... and to follow the faithful.

To Follow the Faithful
When I read about the apostles
And the trials they endured
All for the sake of the gospel
My life seems so absurd
When I consider the death of Stephen
Who paid the ultimate price
For preaching the name of Jesus
I am amazed at his sacrifice
And what of the countless others
Who carried God’s word to the world
In spite of hunger and pain and prison
Stones and threats and insults hurled
How can I follow in the footsteps of those
Who were martyred and suffered so
With so great a cloud of witnesses
Who must laugh at the trials I know
How little my journey resembles theirs
As I fumble from day to day
How dare I proclaim the risen Lord
As an ambassador of the Way
But then I hear the still, small voice
Whispering to me, once again
“Be not dismayed, my precious child
Go carry my Word before men.”
Then I feel a strength well up within
Where fires of faith smouldered still
And I hear the voice of my Master
Gently calling me back to His will
I have no choice but to obey Him
And trust that God has a plan for me
For I was chosen to follow the faithful
Whatever the cost may be
By Frank Carpenter ©