Cheese drills, rugby scrums and faith

A friend came round recently to drill a hole in the outside wall of my house to get a cable through. The drill looked like a gun from some sci-fi movie - the drill bit was almost 2 feet long! He had been prompted to come over and help me with a bit of DIY after I preached on drill bits at our morning meeting.

I had asked people to imagine a drill bit that could only cut through soft things like butter or, with the wind behind it, a piece of cheese. Although this "butter bit" looks sharp and strong it would go blunt and bend the minute it's pressed onto something hard. The reason why B&Q do not sell such a thing is that it would be totally useless. You don't need a drill bit to cut through soft dairy products! Anything can do that.

There is an apparent faith that is nothing more than wishful thinking, or going along with the crowd, or being naturally persuaded by how things currently look. It can look like the real thing, all hard and shiny, but when it hits resistance it goes blunt and bends. True faith is like a steel diamond tipped drill bit. It will stay straight and keeps it's point even when pressed into granite. True faith says "this will change!, we will go through".   

By coincidence I read this, this morning

Prov 24:10  If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

That's saying the same thing. What is the point of strength that fails when something is hard?

            Prov 24:16  the righteous falls seven times and rises again,

Or in the words of the Tubthumping song:

            I get knocked down, but I get up again
            You never gonna keep me down

That's what faith is like.

I used to be play rugby a long time ago. I was on the edge of the scrum. Again, how ridiculous it would be to give up and walk away from the scrum the minute you experienced resistance. The whole point of the scrum is meeting resistance and pushing through. A scrum stands still for a while or perhaps moves sideways a bit as the two powers lock together. But then there is a moment when your side moves forward a fraction and senses the other side flagging. That's the moment to roar and press through your advantage. That's like faith when it hears testimonies of what God has done. True faith doesn't give up when nothing happens, but it grows through testimonies of what God is doing. The rugby scrum analogy is also helpful as it's a team thing. When one might be tempted to flag or give up they are locked together with others around them. Even if your will or body weakens for a bit you can re-engage and push as the others move forward.  

The psalms are full of testimonies, the gospel is a testimony, in fact the bible is one big testimony. Hearing and reading about people getting healed builds faith.

God give me a diamond tipped drill bit of faith, a huge stubborn deep heat smelling faith, locked in with others, that doesn't give up when it meets resistance but roars and pushes home the advantage when it sees you at work.