Three Keys to Living a Life of Faithfulness
As I prepare to enter into my 10th year of active ministry with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, I have been reflecting on what has kept me doing this work for a decade. While there are several factors that have helped contribute to my longevity, I have found three keys that have proven invaluable when it comes to following God and serving as a missionary on the college campus.
Before I share those keys, I want to share a quote:
“Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”
I preface this post with that quote because of the previous two years. What once has been measurable by “harvest” standards has been upended. COVID-19 gave a stern shaking to the way a lot of us operate in our work, our family, our communities, and even what we truly value in our lives. I recently heard someone refer to COVID and the pandemic as “The Great Revealer,” and I couldn’t agree more. We have been strongly challenged to reevaluate what we value: clinging to what is important, and setting aside the faux emblems of importance (i.e. has it really been that important to have everyone in the office to complete their work?)
In the midst of being reoriented and attempting to find a bearing, I came across an Old Testament prophet who seemed to give voice to what I’ve been feeling. Listening to the voice of Habakkuk helped ground me in this moment and while everything isn’t necessarily “solved,” I find a firmer base to plant my feet on so that I can move forward.
I know harvest days will be back around again, but for now I am working to be a seed planter - holding to the promises of God in contested times. Here are three keys to living a life of faithfulness that I found from listening to Habakkuk.
1. In living a life of faithfulness, be ready for the unexpected (both the good and the bad).
In the first chapter in the book of Habakkuk, the prophet is raising complaints to God on behalf of the situation he has found himself in. Israel is no longer faithful and has entertained false worship. There is violence in the streets and equality is something of a far cry. “Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:4) Habakkuk reads the scene as he sees it, taking his complaint to God.
God, out of His faithfulness, responds to the cry of His prophet with these words:
“Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told. (Habakkuk 1:5)
Great! Habakkuk must be thinking to himself. God is going to set life right and get worship and faith back in order. But to Habakkuk’s utter amazement (as God told him), God does something unexpected: He is raising up the Babylonian army against Israel.
Habakkuk can’t believe what he’s hearing! How could God use a vile, debase army like the Babylonians to punish Israel? Surely God could have used a more holy instrument to bring correction? Yet, this is what God chooses to do to set Israel straight once again.
As mentioned previously, COVID upended every part of the world. No one could have expected a global pandemic to impact travel, affect supply chain, and be the harbinger of death to so many. Yet, we are humbled in our pride. We have been brought to our knees in humility. Our way of life has changed.
From COVID, the good that we have learned is the value of importance in relationships: family, friends, and colleagues. We have learned as we’ve hunkered together that, despite the many setbacks the economy and global trade has faced, we need each other. We need each other to provide a shoulder to cry on when life is unbearable, whether that shoulder is two feet away from us or on a screen in a Zoom call.
We need each other to vent our frustrations, to laugh loudly, to dream again, to hope. And I don’t know if we would have arrived at these conclusions about the importance of relationships had it not been for the factor of COVID.
2. In living a life of faithfulness, watch and listen for God.
So Habakkuk, reeling from the news that God is using the Babylonians, does the only thing he can think of that makes sense to him in the moment: he takes the position of a watchman. “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.” (Habakkuk 2:1)
A watchman would be what we would think of as a security guard today. As Israel established cities, towns, and villages in enemy territories, they stationed watchmen on the towers to be lookouts for enemies who might be advancing on them. The watchman, having seen the enemy approaching, would sound the trumpet to alert the soldiers and the townspeople to be prepared for battle.
As Habakkuk takes the posture and position, God shares a word with him that drops a spark of hope in him:
“Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come
and will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:2-3)
God then goes on to say how the Babylonians won’t always prevail and that they will be dealt with in His way and time. The enemy does not get the last word - God does.
I mentioned earlier how my measurements for success have temporarily shifted from “harvest” to “seed.” Serving on a campus of 18,000 undergraduates, working to establish a groundswell of disciples for Jesus can be demanding. One factor that makes it particularly demanding is the four year cycle. Every year, the university receives a new class of incoming first years (a good thing) and every year the university awards diplomas to seniors on their way out (a bittersweet thing). Knowing that a person may not grasp what it means to live with kingdom abandonment and see their friends and peers as people to invite into the kingdom until their senior year showcases the challenge that all campus ministries face.
Yet, this is a “ground view” level of thinking. When I’m on campus and it’s time for Fall start-up where we are welcoming all students back onto campus and there’s just a lot of “busy” going on, it’s easy to have a ground view thinking. However, when we scale back and take a God-view way of thinking, we see that God is working “all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes.” (Romans 8:28) This allows me to have hope because I remember that I belong to the global Church. I serve in my corner of the world with hope and faith, knowing that my brothers and sisters in Egypt, Romania, France, Spain, Peru, Africa, and beyond are laboring alongside me to see as many as we can enter into the joy of God’s good kingdom.
So as Habakkuk awaits the revelation of what will come of the Babylonians, he shares the final key (and something that has become a bedrock verse for me personally). Habakkuk shares in 3:2, “Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day; in our time, make them known.”
3. In living a life of faithfulness, keep going. Keep showing up.
The only reason I can keep going in my work and keep having hope not only for my campus but for the world is because there have been faithful men and women who have gone before me who have battled with culture, apathy, and legitimate forces of darkness so that some might come to a place of knowing God. I love what Hebrews 12 says:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
I love this passage because there have been times where I’ve wanted to quit, where the effort hasn’t been worth the results, where it’d be easier to do something else. Yet these verses and others like it in the Bible challenge me to take up the work of perseverance and have the longview in mind in my personal discipleship as well as the work God has called me to do.
Some sub-keys from this passage:
Do a character study of someone in scripture or a great spiritual hero. John Wesley, Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, Teresa of Avila, Amy Carmichael come to mind. I’ve been studying Moses for two months now just sitting with some of the questions and challenges in his life when it came to discovering his identity and what God was calling him to do.
Not only confess sin, but look at what hinders your life and then find a way to get rid of it. Blatant sin is easy to find, but do things like unnecessary subscriptions, stress-eating ice cream, or some other indulgence hinder your love and worship of God? Speaking to myself here…
Embrace the course that God has you on with the longview in mind. In ministry, it’s easy to look across campus, the street, or online and see what God is up to in others’ lives. It’s even easier to want to emulate that so you can feel good about yourself and think you’re achieving “success.” God has you where He wants you for a reason; stay in your lane and embrace what He has for you. You’re called to be faithful.
Have Jesus be central in your every waking moment. When we “fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,” we don’t have much time to become self-centered and complain about situations that may be bigger than us anyway. The foundation of our work rises and falls on the faithfulness of Jesus, and he’s already proved just how awesome he is with his discipleship, death, and resurrection.
Habakkuk’s situation didn’t change overnight. He still had to deal with the tyranny of the Babylonians. He still had to watch once faithful Israel continue in their faithless living until they chose to repent. Yet his deep, heartfelt conversation with God reoriented his view of his situation and thinking. The prophet’s book ends with this:
Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
