Imago Scriptura 112 - Ezekiel 1-2 and Hebrews 11 - More Feet

Ok - so some kind of weird foot thing is going on.  This picture doesn't have my feet in it this time, but it is still about walking and moving forward.  Hmmm...God has something to say to me about this I think. Starting out the book of Ezekiel today, we have the call to Ezekiel and the vision that he has of the heavenly realms.  The call comes at the end of chapter two after a description of visions that are hard to even envision.  Then comes the words that lay out for Ezekiel what he is to do, laying out the words he is to speak but also with this heart-warming (sarcasm) sentence...

You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious.

Basically, what I hear in that is God telling Ezekiel...they aren't going to listen but you need to tell them anyway.  Yikes.  How's that for a feeling of being "successful" in ministry?

Then I read the first part of Hebrews 11 which starts with one of the most often-quoted passages about "faith" in the Bible...

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

These words are often quoted in connection with praying through difficult times and situations and there's truth to that.  However, when you read further, it doesn't seem to fit quite as much.  What follows is a list of faithful men and women of God and their response to God in faith to live out what God was calling them to.  Creation, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, The Hebrews, the army around Jericho, Rahab, and then the closing list..."

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets...

All having to move foward in faith, taking steps that might have seemed scary, difficult, unpredictable, uncertain...moving forward trusting in the God who called to them.

I wanted to use a picture I took a few years ago on the top of Mt Evans as I shot down a fairly-sheer facing from the summit, but that doesn't feel right to me.  To jump from a place like that is not calling, its stupid.  And God wouldn't call someone to that, but instead it feels like a staircase (like this one) that is a hefty climb and the end is uncertain.

There are so many times like this in our lives - I could put out quite a list of them.  Some of them I am in the middle of right now.  But I sitll must climb on, climbing and stepping in faith even when it feels like nothing I am doing changes anything (a la what God says to Ezekiel) as well as in the times when I can look back and see how far I have come.

This speaks to how many are feeling right now in this uncertain time.  We don't know what the future holds.  Some are optimistic, some are scared.  But I pray that we can find ways to walk together.