If you’re a follower or reader of The Cherry Vine, you may recall a fairly recent post titled, “Broken Faith.” Well, the tangible object that inspired that blog post was fixed–glued almost perfectly back together by a friend, as shown in the featured image. Jokingly, I thanked him for fixing my faith, however, weeks later, although my signage wasn’t broken anymore, I sure did fault on my faith, and here’s how…
Have you had an experience where it seems like so much in life is going right, to then have the far-end of that experience where so much appears to be going wrong, and it just won’t stop? It sort of feels like an annoying leak that’s challenging to repair! This past week served up a few days of this experience, no doubt. Without going into detail of each issue, the one thing that made me call “fault” on my faith started with an instant message about someone near and dear to my heart, who was having surgery. The instant message led to a later phone conversation, in which it was revealed that the surgery wasn’t going to occur days later, but open-heart surgery would take place within hours of the phone call. Anxiety took the wheel, and immediately pushed my faith to the passenger seat! I thought, What if this person dies? Why didn’t I call or text him just to say, “Hey….”? What if our 50 years of friendship and brother/sister love ends on the operating table today?? What happens if I don’t have him to talk to about things most folk don’t understand about me? What is it going to be like if I no longer hear him say, “Hey Leez! What’s going on, Tap Toe?” Yes…worry definitely took over my faith–Serving “Fault” On Faith….
Getting myself together, I prayed and prayed and prayed!! I also solicited the prayers of others who knew him personally or who only knew him indirectly through me. Prayer warriors were on deck, and I was sure that a lot of prayers were being lifted for him. However, I still could not shake the worry. I still couldn’t quite plant my feet on the solid ground where I normally step into much easier. I couldn’t quite find the place that I write about. I couldn’t take heed to my own spiritual signage. Pretty much, I had stressed myself with worry, and felt like I defaulted on my faith. I had driven myself to a place of spiritual wreckage—Faith’s Junkyard! This girl was in need of a serious U-turn!
Well, it took some time (longer than it should have) before some degree of normalcy resumed, but thank God that I heard the loud resounding ‘fault’, kind of like the one we hear during a faulty serve in a tennis match. It made me think of how easy it is to go left of center, even when it appears that no alignment is needed. It made me realize that we all may need a quick tune-up, getting our spark plugs changed in order to be reminded to not fault on our faith. I was reminded, much like a frying pan hitting my forehead, to let God take it. He can fix this too! Stop worrying, and keep praying! Worry never fixes anything, however faith fixes everything by relinquishing control to God, and accepting His Will. There is absolutely NO fault in that!
It’s now four days later, and although a situation prevented me from visiting him, I’ve spoken to him, by phone. I’m so thankful and happy to report that my friend (my brother-from-another) is recovering from open-heart surgery and mending well—-So is my faith! Faith actually got fixed in two places 🙂
Peace and Blessings, Lisa B