Article # 13 – FAITH

I settled into my easy chair ready to enjoy a nationally televised, meaningful, NFL football game.  Instead, I got an up-close and personal example of FAITH the noun and the verb as players gathered, taking a knee with bowed heads for their comrade fallen to a cardiac arrest after making a tackle.  I am writing this on the fourth day after faithfully praying he comes out of still critical condition. Football didn’t matter to either team or to those watching.  It rocketed me back other events in my life where FAITH the noun and the verb were thrust front and center.

I was traveling on Monday, September 10, 2001, to Atlanta for a speaking engagement. The next morning, I was putting on my socks while watching TV. I watched as the first tower came down that fateful Tuesday.  The aftermath of that event lasted for days.  It was utterly surreal going to Hartsfield Airport on Friday, September 14 to catch the first possible flight back to Denver.  No one talked above a whisper.  The terminal was like a ghost town.  Planes occupied every section of tarmac available.  My flight was only 20% full and deathly quiet.  Arriving at Denver International Airport was like a mirror image of Hartsfield.  Planes everywhere, no people.  Church attendance the following Sunday was epic.

It was Saturday afternoon September 30, 1998, Washington Husky stadium. At the end of the game, in the middle of the stadium logo both teams knelt with bowed heads to honor a fallen player, Sal Aunese, 21 years young, who died the previous week of cancer.  The stadium was dead quiet in awe of the sight.  The visiting University of Colorado football team dedicated the game to their fallen teammate.  James Ryle, the team chaplain commented later it was like three hours in the Ark of the Covenant within the holy of holies in the temple of God – peacefully sovereign and yet powerful.  The Colorado team hung 45 points on the venerable Washington Huskies on their home field, but football actually took a back seat.  What happened was oh so much larger than just college football.

There was a somber quiet to our town on April 21st, 1999.  Columbine High School memorial services and church attendance required crowd controls.  I remember adding chairs into the aisles of our church to accommodate all the new people.  I quietly hoped the fire marshals were not working that Sunday.  All of a sudden it was OK to pray at schools.  The normal prohibitions were pushed aside. They just didn’t matter.

These examples of FAITH showing up as a noun and a verb, were the result of tragedies.  It is our natural response to trauma.  When we are at the end of ourselves, we bend a knee and bow a head looking for reason and resources.  Is this he only place where you have experienced FAITH?  What would occur if this kind of FAITH was connected not only to trauma?  Is it possible to experience the peaceful sovereignty of God and the power of His presence during normal living of life?  Can we experience reason, purpose, and resources regularly?  Yes!  That is what we call Horizontal Heaven TM.

Welcome to the Soul Roadmap where we continue to build a process where your FAITH can become and grow as both a noun and a verb.  This brings peace and power to your daily travel along your road of life.