Written by Grace Pouch, a contemporary writer and content manager. This story is based on an excerpt from Mark Buchanan’s novel “What is Left of the Night.”
The year is 1942, and an atheist writer and a Christian pastor, inhabitants of a tiny French village, are discussing how to topple the Nazi regime. The pastor explains that he has chosen to take the way of Jesus, who confronted Roman and religious oppression by wielding ideas, not weapons and by giving up his life to save others. The truth about God’s kingdom, he says, is “very dangerous. Very political. Always.” So, he is preaching the gospel and living it out—hiding Jews in his home and mobilizing his village to do the same. “And this is working?” [A fair question from the atheist.] “Not yet.” This is faith. Practicing the Kingdom way even when it does not work, yet—because we trust that it willwork, eventually. It is building an ark in a bone-dry field because God says rain’s coming (Gen 6:22). It is sharing with a stranger the last of your oil and flour because the Lord says he will provide (1 Kings 17:12-14). It is putting away your sword—even after you’ve used it disgracefully—and learning in time to be like the Good Shepherd, repaying evil with good (Matthew 26:51-54; 1 Peter 2:21-23, 3:9-17). When we’re faithful to a way that doesn’t yet “work,” the Enemy is sure to sow doubt and discouragement. A seed of cynicism sprouts up and attacks the little kernel of kingdom-confidence growing inside us… But God never stops working.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. [Hebrews 11:1]
Pathways Press.com 