“You also must be prepared.”

When I was in my twenties, I would play football most Sundays during the fall with a group of other young men. We were friends who grew up together and knew each other. When I played the quarterback position, I would tell my receivers in the ‘huddle’ what routes to run. When they made their final ‘cut,’ I would have already thrown the ball to where they would be when they turned around to catch it. My receivers had faith in me and believed that I would do what I promised them I would do in the ‘huddle,’ because they had seen me do it before. I had the same faith in them to do as they were asked.

When it comes to believing in God’s promises, we are called to have an infinitely greater faith. This is the type of faith that Abraham had in God. At God’s call, Abraham left the only land that he knew, to go were God told him to go, even though he did not know where he was going. When God called Abraham, he was an old man and his wife, Sarah, was an old woman. They had no children of their own, yet they had faith in God and believed that from them would come “descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.”

Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac, and through faith in the God he had never seen, Abraham was prepared to obediently sacrifice his son at God’s command. We know the end of this story. God would not let Abraham harm Isaac, because of Abraham’s faith and obedience. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob, called Israel by God, was the father of twelve sons. Jacob’s sons became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all died with complete faith in the God they had never seen.

We must have the same complete faith in a God we know, through Jesus Christ, though we too, have never seen Him. Jesus tells us in His parables that our faith must be put into action. Through faith, we must always be prepared to answer God’s call in this life, whether He calls us to a particular vocation, or He calls us into eternal life. God entrusts us with our faith and His love, to do as He asks, to spread our faith and His love, to those who do not have faith.

When we are always prepared to live in the faith and love that God has given us, Jesus will gird Himself, have us recline at table, and proceed to wait on us, in the kingdom of heaven.

– Bishop Roy Campbell