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I was in a staff meeting many years ago, and our Executive Pastor played a rather good (and rather melancholy) spoke poetry for us. It's worth a listen, but the thrust of the poem (to put it less poetically) is a husband and wife take off or a journey from the east coast the west coast but stop and settle in the great plains. Sounds fair enough, except that the dream, the goal, the destination had always been the west coast and because they stopped they also robbed themselves of the journey.

This kind of theme pops up in motivational speaking all the time - don't stop, don't quite, never give up, etc.

There are some echoes of this kind of thinking in the scriptures as well.

  • The Patriarchs are told to keep going until they find rest in the promised land.
  • Joseph is particular to remind the Israel that Egypt is not their home.
  • Israel is punished when they stop short of getting rid of all the Caananites in the land

Halfway isn't all the way, and partly-faithful isn't faithful.

As we rest in this season of Christmas (just a few days left!) and remember the faithfulness of the caravan of wise men. Matthew 1 puts it this way:

Matthew 2:9 - "[After the wise men had journeyed from the East to Jerusalem and then on their way to Bethlehem] they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was."

Some folks say this journey was possibly 4-5 months long. Can you imagine them making it all the way to Jerusalem, dropping off the gifts, and then saying "Can someone finish this delivery?" or making it to Jerusalem and saying, "Dang, we gotta go further? I don't know maybe we'll just turn around."

When we remember the Christmas story, we remember the wise men following the star, all the way, until it stopped.

Faith is about being faithful.

Jesus later said it this way:

  • Ask until you get an answer
  • Seek until you find
  • Knock until the door is opened for you

It's ok - even expected - that experiencing the fruit of faith requires us to be faithful.