A few years back I went to Seattle to visit one of my best friends in
life… and like best friends we did a lot of… well, nothing. We hung
out each day, we swam in the Pugent Sound, we listened to some local Seattle rockers, we
checked out a famous fish market, hit the original Starbucks, and we ate crazy
amounts of seafood. One day my buddy we get invited to “go snowshoeing” … sounds
cool to me. However, I didn’t have any boots and you need to attach
these snow shoes to a pair of boots, and I didn’t bring any. So we were gonna
have to borrow a pair of boots.
So we hop in the car and off we go and Bradley’s friend had
a pair of boots that I could use… not sure if it was the friend that took
us to this place or if we borrowed someone else’s but I do know one thing, the
boots that I borrowed were government issued boots for an Army soldier. Now my
Dad, Stepdad, Uncles and Grandfathers enlisted and served our country and I
have always been taught to hold military men in high esteem, so I was actually
nervous getting to use the special boots that belong to a special man. So we
arrive and I’m handed my boots and then I realize what we are doing… this
was not just playing with some snow shoes in a field or valley forge park or
something… we were at the foot of Mt. Rainer, one of the highest mountains
in North America! And our little “snowshoeing” experience was no
joke, we were aiming to hike from the foot of the mountain to the base camp
that people then Summit the Mountain. We would not be summiting but we would
see the top! In fact from the base camp we could see Mt. Hood Mt. St. Helen ! This was hours and
hours of trekking in snow shoes ahead of us and between the two of us we had a
granola bar and a bottle of water. This was dumb! We also noticed that every
one of the well prepared hikers around us had either snowboards or snow skates
strapped to their backs as they begun the journey up. We must have looked like
the most ridiculous city kids you could imagine starring at their gear saying “uh,
what’s that for, well, I guess we’ll go up anyway” But secretly, I
wasn't scared, because I had government issued boots on. I was special. I was
elite. At least my boots were.
[Galatians 3:7-9: Know then that it is those of faith who
are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to
Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So
then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.]
Not to take away from a fun adventure but long story short… we
ran out of water, learned that chewing snow does not at all quench your thirst,
snow shoeing is hard, those skates and board were for the ride down and if you
didn’t bring them you’d be forced to invent some ridiculous way of putting your
hood up, jumping down steep hills and rolling on your back while the snow piled
up behind you and you prayed it wasn't an avalanche…. we were so
dumb; but you know what I learned early on… those boots didn’t keep all
the water out, in fact they weren't comfortable at all either, they were pretty
heavy and clunky and didn’t mix well with the snow shoes… it was a
hard walk.
I looked at those boots and because of the name associate
with them I thought that they had to be perfect and I would have no problems
and would make me succeed just because I was wearing US government issued shoes.
I was wrong.
This passage tells us that we are blessed along with
Abraham. Seriously? Us? Along with a big name guy like Abraham? He has songs
written after him! He is one of the all time greats! We can’t be in a sentence
with him! … or can we? Was old Abe perfect? No!
Remember when he lied about his wife, says she is his sister so that he
wouldn't get hurt but she would be taken to this king sleep with
him?!?!! Abe wasn't perfect either… in fact if we were
being judged on actions I think I’ve got him beat after that last story… but
we are not being judged on our actions, that is just the point, Abe was counted “Blessed” because
of his Faith and not because of the things that he did. We think that we can
put ourselves in a category with Abraham because he is such a big name… well
I thought those boots were perfect to because they were a big name… I
found out they were just like any shoe and Abraham is just like all of us… a
man who lived by Faith. Are you living by faith like Abraham did ?
1. Who do you find yourself comparing
yourself to the most when it comes to being a good Christian?
2. How do we know that its not about the good
things that we do that it is all about the faith that we have in Christ?
3. So then, those who are of _________ are blessed along
with ___________, the man of faith.
4. Spend some time journaling about this passage.
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Written by Jeff Harkins
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