Providential randomness.

I'm not sure what my subject heading is going to have to do with what I write about but perhaps it has everything to do with what I am going to write about since this will be random. It's wonderful how God exercises absolute authority over all randomness and weaves it into a rich tapestry of life that can only be seen through faith.

The lesson of faith is this: Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And also: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And again: Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

I was considering the ways of faith in the tempest on Monday night while driving back home from school. As I was entering the on ramp for I-78 I saw a spider walking across my windshield. At that moment I got the green light to go and began to accelerate in my merge lane. I began to think that it would be neat to see how fast I had to go before the spider was torn from my astonished gaze. The speedometer needle crept up to 30 mph and then 40 and, as I watched, the spider began to hunker down into my windshield to cut down its wind profile. I marched my way up to 75 mph and could see that the spider had attached a silk line to the glass and was using every measure of its strength to hold on. Still, its windward legs flipped over its head and it began to slide. At this point, I took mercy on the spider and slowed down to 65 mph to see if it could endure the test of its strength all the way to my off ramp. It didn't make it through its tempest and blew off into the dark night.

Allow me to extrapolate my thoughts: I have found that I am in the place of that spider more often than I care to admit. I am caught in a situation that I cannot handle and my response is to buckle down defensively and use my strength to maintain an untenable position. My foundations are my sins and I run to them for comfort. In so doing, I am fearful that I will be taken by the night without support beneath my feet. Yet, it is fear that drives the engine of destruction if I am fearing those things that have no endurance before God. I fear my sin because I know that it has no power to save me and will lead me to death. But what is my lack of faith to the God of all creation? What is my fear to the God who casts out fear with His perfect and mighty love? He can provide even in the midst of my faithlessness and does even provide for me the small measure of faith that I have. It pleases Him to prove His faithfulness to me when I am lacking in faith.

We have a firm foundation in the middle of the tempest. We fear and stand in awe of a God who is mighty to save. We can release our grip from those things that so easily ensnare us and trust that Christ is holding us in His tender grasp. We can do this because He is the one who faced the tempest and was forsaken by God. Our Savior had no place to rest His head. He held onto our worthless sin and became sin when it held the power of death over us. By so doing, He enslaved death which had no power over He who gives us life. May Christ be our foundation because He is not dependent on our strength to hold onto Him. We are dependent on His mighty hand and its hold on us.