salad sucks.

Yesterday, I went to atlanta with Mayfair's college group. We did the water park/braves game combo, it was a great trip. On the way home, Doug, our college minister, was talking to some people, having one of those real talk conversations that seem to only happen in the back of a church bus after a long day. They were talking about faith, and I was eavesdropping as I watched the lightning storm dance around in the night sky. Faith, for some reason, seems to make more sense when you're watching a lightning storm, it's something about how powerful, yet unpredictable it is. Anyway, as they were talking, in the back of the bus, Doug said something I haven't been able to get out of my head since. He said this:

"We don't need faith."

Ouch. Those words stung, somehow more than the crappy shower water at the water park had earlier that day. They stung b/c I know they are true.
It's tragic really. We've (christians) lost our need for faith. We don't need faith. Think about it to yourself-what do we ever do that requires real faith? We're in control of every aspect of our lives. When do we ever step away from what we know, adventure past the outcomes we expect, and rely on nothing but God to get us through? When do we put ourselves in situations we are unsure of, scared of even, and rely on faith?
We're far too comfortable.
And somehow we've fooled ourselves into thinking we know what faith is, so we call ourselves Christians and we tell people we have faith, and that we need this so called "faith" to survive. But really, what would happen if we didn't have faith? By that I mean, what would happen if someone were to take our faith away? I'm afraid that for me, the answer is that very little would change in my life. And that, is the tragedy.

But I'm a sucker for happy endings. I could have quit writing right there, but that certainly would not have been very happy now, would it? One of the things I love most about following Jesus is that there is always hope. No matter where you are, what you're dealing with, what you've done, in following Jesus Christ there is always hope for something better.
So what's the solution to this tragedy? I think it's clear. Lets start doing things that don't make sense, things that will surely fail, things that are downright stupid, if, we try to do them without God. Because I feel like we missing so much living the way we are. It's like God is the full buffet at Ryans, and we've paid for it, but we're only eating at the salad bar. And we can see the fried chicken, and the macaroni and cheese, and the peach cobbler, but we don't know what they taste like, so we're too scared to go over there. We have no clue what else is out there, what He can do, what we can do for Him, because we are too scared to leave what we know. But you know what?
Salad sucks.
I think they give it to you before the meal so that no matter what else they serve, they know you won't be too disappointed b/c at least it'll be better than the salad.
So lets move away from the salad bar, lets move away from what we know. Lets put ourselves in uncomfortable situations, and let's see what God can do.
Let's be people who need faith. Because without it, we'd fail, at everything we try to do.