Faith is like a tree it blooms or dies depending on how you feed it…
(벚꽃 -sounds like pop-corn- Chenon S. Korea Picture by Joy Seo.)

I have been very inconsistent with my DAY posts this year. I vow to do better starting now. Life was (and in some ways still is) hectic, but it is all part of the journey God has me on. Now as I sit relaxed after a 2.5 mile trek, I am wishing I had been more consistent. God has been faithfully teaching me all along the way, but I have not been faithful in dictating the lessons learned as a reminder for myself and a tool to help others. So today I am committing to getting back on track. So, then what am I learning now? Faith requires work. Yup, WORK. Many of us define faith as “believing and hoping in the unseen”, and you wouldn’t really be incorrect. But belief and hope requires that the believer/hoper participate actively in the pursuit of what they are believing and hoping for. Faith is not passive, it was never meant to be. We can’t simply just believe things into existence, if we could there would be no need for hard work. No need for education, or even the need to set goals and dreams. Now I don’t want you to misunderstand, I am not insinuating that we shouldn’t trust God to meet our needs. I am also NOT saying that we shouldn’t have the faith of a child (the kind of faith Christ told us to have). But what I am saying is that God has given us the gift of faith so that we can act on it. For example I want to be a doctor, I believe by faith it is what God has called me to do. I have sat on this thought for years knowing in my head that I want to do it. Feeling in my heart that every road that led to somewhere other than medical school was just a temporary stop on my bandwagon of procrastination. But the only way for me to become a doctor is to enroll in school (uhmmm…done). I have to study and learn. I have a responsibility, a role to play, in order to see my faith realized. Faith is not passive it is active. It requires us to take the steps necessary. It requires that we actively seek God’s will as we travel with Him in our faith walk. Sometimes faith says go, go, go. Sometimes faith says stop and wait. Be it go, go, go or wait… FAITH requires WORK.

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

The Lesson: Faith is active not passive, do the work necessary.