February 24

Good morning! For today's Forward Day by Day readings click here: Forward Day by Day

Today being Sunday and all, I wanted to pull a little Faith out of the bag. Because just like George Michael sings in his famous 80s hit, "Faith," you've gotta have some.

You'll know faith right away when you're feeling around in your bag for it. Faith's weight and size give its location away every time. Faith is the largest, heaviest and most amazing multi-use tool in our bag. In my mind, this is what it might look like to finally lug ole Faith out of the tool kit::

 or...

 or....

We call Faith in for the really big  jobs. But also for life's little challenges. And 100 percent of the time, it works — maybe not always in the way we expect it to, but it always achieves a positive outcome. Every. Single. Time.

I have been involved with church leadership for the past two years, and am now serving as our church Senior Warden. I have clutched Faith many times, and am holding onto it as we speak. Like many churches around the world, our little All Saints family has been facing some pretty tough financial issues. The more logical, human side of my brain wants to start throwing other tools at it — spreadsheets, finance gurus, pencils, calculators and giant wads of cash. I want to approach these challenges like any other family does — with caution and an abundance of reserve. But our clergy tells us to approach this with that gynormous hammer in the bag. Even when the going seems tough, we are called to step out IN and definitely WITH faith.

I heard that one time during a meeting and, yes, I'll admit...I had big time snarky thoughts. "With Faith, are you kidding me? We need a bone saw to trim expenses we don't have! We need to pull out some seeds to plant a few money trees on campus! Faith? Forget it! This is no job for Faith. This is a job for Brain!"

And you know what happened? Almost the very next day, someone mailed a very significantly sized check the the church office. It helped turn modest expectations for a fundraising campaign into assurance of meaningful success.

Faith achieves a positive outcome. Every. Single. Time.

When was the last time you chunked Faith at a problem? When was the last time you thought to yourself, "if God's with me, who can be against me?" all the while heaving that big hammer out of your pack? Take George Michael's advice. Exercise your rights to Faith.