Clouds of Witnesses

After the famous chapter on men and women of faith in the Bible, men and women who saw miracles and those who waited all their lives without seeing them, there is an admonition for us to remember that we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses. With that in mind, we are to set aside the weight that hinders and run with perseverance the race set for us. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, not the circumstances that surround us. And the thought seems to be that we are encouraged by this cloud of witnesses, inspired by their stories, and prodded on by their faith.

I was thinking this afternoon about these men and women of faith. Some of them knew that they'd received a promise-- they received their dead back to life, they had children, they saw miracles. Others spent their lives in faith, waiting for a reality that would only come clear in eternity. Yet, regardless of their story, I can't imagine that these people lived the way they did so they'd be part of the Bible for all of history. They wouldn't have known there would be a Bible, and I imagine that many of them lived their lives of faith in what seemed to be obscurity. I imagine them feeling alone and forgotten. I imagine them wondering if they would see a miracle. Yet, I think they each recounted the stories of what God had already done. I believe they clung to His promises as though they were life. I think they prayed with perseverance even when they didn't feel the faith.

Yet, how much easier it must have been for those who were surrounded by people of faith?! And I thought that each of us has opportunity to be that person of faith, that one who talks about Jesus, that man or woman who seeks God above all else. And it makes me wonder how things would change in my community if I became more of that person. We have many stories of answered prayers and God's goodness and faithfulness-- stories we have lived and ones we have watched unfold. And yet we can set these stories aside for the "pressing realities" of life-- the weather, the things I'd like to do, the items I'd like to buy, the places I'd like to go, the people I met, the challenges I'm facing.

While these things are normal conversation starters, I've been challenged again to go beyond what is normal and be a witness to what the God of the Universe is doing.