Living By Faith

I just finished reading my best friend's blog. She is one of the most amazing people I've ever known. You see, she and her family (husband and three daughters) are foreign missionaries. They are getting ready to head to the other side of the globe, live in the jungle, and sacrifice all of life's luxuries so that the tribal people there can know the Lord. It makes me wonder if I'd be willing to do the same thing. I like to think so, but when it really came down to it, would I be willing to leave my wonderful life here in the States and go live in a mud hut somewhere in order to bring the Gospel to a lost people? 
Then, like a ton of bricks, it hit me. I'm doing what she's doing. Well, not literally what she's doing, but what she's doing. God's will for her life is to serve Him as a foreign missionary. God's will for my life is being a doctor. I joke that I'm glad God's will for my life wasn't to move far far away and live in the jungle, but the truth is, this life isn't always easy either. God calls us to be life-long followers of Him, and that's not always easy. I think one of the many reasons for this is that it allows us to relate to people who don't know Him on a personal level. If being a life-long follower of Christ were super easy, how would we be able to say, "I understand what you're going through" or "I know how you feel."? The world would say, "No you don't! Your life is super easy!" Going through hard times allows us to  truly know what they're going through and use that as a way to minister and witness to them.
Living in the center of God's will also shows us the power of living by faith. That is certainly no easy task. I mean, think about it. Wouldn't it be much easier just to keep my tithe check and use that money to pay my bills? I'm sure a lot of people think, "She'd have plenty of money if she didn't give so much away. " Well, the truth is, I still wouldn't have enough even if I kept every penny. But, God didn't call me to make money and keep it all for myself. It isn't even truly my money. It's His. He deserves my willingness to give it back to Him, and that's what tithing is. There are also people who live on even less money than I do and could use it more than me. There are people in this world who don't have Bibles, and if I can go without one fast food dinner to provide them with one, then it's totally worth it (and my waistline will thank me!). 
Living by faith isn't only about money though. It's about all aspects of your life. It's about moving half-way across the country just a few months after you get married to go to medical school. It's about getting pregnant 9 months after you get married (when you certainly weren't trying to) and trusting Him that this is all in His plan. It's about staying in a city 12 hours from your family to do residency when you have two children, one with special needs. It's about Him putting us in that city in order to attend an awesome church with a priceless church family whom I miss every day and for Will to attend the greatest developmental preschool on the planet. It's about being given the honor of raising a special needs child so that I can minister to the hurting parents of other special needs children every day in my practice. It's about knowing that when my best friend moves far far away in a few months, that she'll be okay and that even though I'll miss her dearly, our friendship will not fail because we can't talk every day. It's about knowing that God puts each of us where we are for a specific purpose, a great purpose. 
I feel honored to know her. She ministers to me in ways she'll probably never know. Her example of living by faith helps me know that I can do it too. I hope that I can be half the witness and example she is and that my life will bless someone else the way she has blessed mine. I love you J!