As an aging octogenarian, I resonate with every word of this remarkable video. It is relevant to every age group. You probably have aging people in your horizon, and whatever age you are, you too are aging!
My parents refused to let me ride it in the dark, so I went to sleep with it in my bed.
The next morning, I nudged the rooster to crow, and for the next two weeks, I was glued to that bike until bedtime. Then school started, and I had to share my biking hours with my school desk.
The best Christmas gift I can recall was my first bicycle at age five. In our German tradition, we received gifts on Christmas Eve and had to wait until after dark. It is summer in South Africa in December, so somewhere around 9 p.m., I finally got MY BIKE.
The rush of adrenaline, the novelty, the sense of wonder, the exploration, and the joy—all were stolen from me by the hard reality and tediousness of school. I entered what might be called a midlife crisis with regard to my bicycle.
Middle age in your pilgrimage follows the same pattern: excitement, exuberance, energy, and enthusiasm. Everything is new and thrilling. Then you get to know almost everything, and you realize the walk with Christ is not a casual stroll along the shores of the lake with free picnics and thrilling crowds; it requires selflessness and discipline.
My parents refused to let me ride it in the dark, so I went to sleep with it in my bed.
The next morning, I nudged the rooster to crow, and for the next two weeks, I was glued to that bike until bedtime. Then school started, and I had to share my biking hours with my school desk.
The rush of adrenaline, the novelty, the sense of wonder, the exploration, and the joy—all were stolen from me by the hard reality and tediousness of school. I entered what might be called a midlife crisis with regard to my bicycle.
Middle age in your pilgrimage follows the same pattern: excitement, exuberance, energy, and enthusiasm. Everything is new and thrilling. Then you get to know almost everything, and you realize the walk with Christ is not a casual stroll along the shores of the lake with free picnics and thrilling crowds; it requires selflessness and discipline.
When the Wonder Wears Off
The wonder of God’s love is breathtaking, but you can only hold your breath for so long, and after a while, the edge wears off. School starts. Ouch! Many drop out here entirely.
A middle-age crisis is a dangerous time. Weariness and dullness take hold, and one loses interest. Many abandon the pilgrimage at this point, so it is essential to know the symptoms and take urgent corrective measures.
A Cry for Renewal
This is the crisis Habakkuk addresses. “In the midst of the years revive; in the midst of the years make known”
The repetition is significant; it is the way Hebrew emphasizes something. If you want to say the Grand Canyon, Hebrew would say, “the Canyon Canyon”. It is a crisis of a crisis, a rut that differs from a grave merely in depth.
Right Standing With God
Habakkuk continues: “…the person in right standing before God, through loyal and steady believing, is fully alive—really alive” (The Message). We need an upgrade.
Rediscovering the Ride
In my sixties, I bought another bicycle! The freedom to explore returned. It was still exuberant, but the decades had brought a new perspective. I was no longer enamored by the bike itself, but by the journey.
New destinations continually beckoned me. My limited walking radius of three miles an hour was instantly enlarged to a world of possibilities at ten-plus miles an hour. I rode with a smile of pure delight.
Electrified Living
Then came the innovation of an electric bike! A new wonder gripped me as new possibilities and options opened up. Suddenly, I wasn’t just working harder—I was going further.
This is the exact connotation of what it means to be “revived”. The way forward is simpler than you may imagine. The answer is not simply: “Work harder. Grit your teeth and continue with sheer determination”. If that is your strategy, you will burn out before the horizon. The answer is to “electrify” your experience.
A Marriage Awakens
Marriage provides a vivid illustration. Flying back from a speaking engagement, I began thinking about my marriage. It was in a midlife crisis. Seven years in, with two small children one year apart, a very busy solo pastorate with many teaching, administrative, and pastoral duties did not leave much time or energy.
How could I revive the fire?
I began to reflect, and soon I was filled with gratitude. She was beautiful, kind, wise, generous, loyal, and humorous. Then I tried to recall all the special moments of joy we shared. Then I challenged myself to stand in her shoes and appreciate what she did routinely that I was overlooking.
What could she do that I was unable to do? What could I learn from her?
I began to hunger to know her at a deeper level than the simple chemistry and hormones that had so vividly promoted our early passion. That original passion was ecstatic in its novelty, but it had grown stale because there were no new expectations.
The Power of Spiritual Electricity
You must start that same process with your thinking about God:
Start exploring His “hiddenness”.
Express gratitude for things He has done and is doing.
Cultivate curiosity – find people and read books that stoke your passion.
In short, get back on your bike—but with a different intention and a gifted energy.
Jesus gives us the blueprint for this spiritual electricity in Luke 11: “Ask, Seek, Knock”. The verbs are in the present continuous tense: “keep on, never stop, and always be asking, seeking, and knocking”. Practice it until, like riding a bicycle, wobbly at first, but ultimately requires no thinking, your response to life is to connect with God in every situation.
What are we seeking? The Holy Spirit. He is the electric energy of your spiritual experience. He doesn’t replace your pedaling; He elevates it to new possibilities.
Your Discovery Awaits
To start that stoking process, I challenge you to explore the dynamic the Holy Spirit brings to your own experience.
Remember: Eternity is the horizon. It will NEVER be boring.
Mount Everest continues to rise about ¼ inch (5 mm) a year due to a massive, ongoing “tectonic smashup” between two tectonic plates: the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The region is prone toJustification by faith is more than a doctrine; it is a seismic event. It is the moment human effort is swallowed up by divine grace. continuing earthquakes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4WLHIUU2uU&t=7s
Justification by faith is a tectonic smashup between the grace of God and human arrogance. This contrast is clearly surfaced in the difficulties in prayer: unanswered as well as answers not to my agenda. (Habakkuk:1-2:5) Human arrogance demands God do what an arrogant human desires. (The many who testify they tested God and he failed them highlight the matter.) Specifically 2:4 “Look at that man, bloated by self-importance— full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive.” (The Message)
Paul and the Shock Within Judaism
Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, indicating a brand of fussy obedience that was all enveloping. Friendship with God cannot be earned. It is offered as a gift to be accepted. The obverse side to this coin is a pernicious human perception that God requires performance for acceptance. Here is an historical trajectory of the performance model: The Torah, the five books attributed to Moses, were analyzed to contain 613 commandments. The Talmud (which came after Paul) demonstrates where this led: a 63-volume “instruction manual” that explains the 613 details in depth. It is like the tax code of the USA” The “page count” of the U.S. tax code is a moving target because it depends entirely on whether you are looking at the literal laws passed by Congress or the massive library of regulations required to actually follow those laws.As of 2026, here is the breakdown of the length of the tax code:If you only count the actual Internal Revenue Code (Title 26 of the U.S. Code) as published by the government, it is approximately 6,800 to 7,000 pages.
Paul recognized that it was impossible to be scrupulous enough. His discovery that God declared a person righteous, or justified, based on faith in the doing and dying of Jesus in his place, was a tectonic shift with continuing impact. Harking back to the revelation made to Habakkuk, he found that accepting the gift of God, offered freely, was pivotal in friendship with God. Mount Everest, after all, is still rising!
Luther and the Shock Within the Church
More than a thousand years later, the same idea shook Europe.
The medieval church had developed a complex system of penance, sacramental participation, and religious effort. Many believers lived with deep anxiety about whether they had done enough to satisfy God’s perfection. All who were sincere in seeking God lived with quiet anxiety: had they done enough to satisfy God’s perfection?
Martin Luther certainly tried. Reflecting on his years as a monk, he wrote, “If ever a monk got to heaven by monkery, I should have been that monk.”
Despite his scrupulous observance, he was wracked by doubt. He thought a pilgrimage to The Holy City would resolve his crisis of faith. Luther ascended the 28 marble steps (which tradition says were the steps Jesus climbed to face Pontius Pilate) on his knees. On each individual step, he stopped to recite the “Our Father” (Pater Noster) and, according to some accounts, kissed the steps where he believed he saw stains of Christ’s blood. Instead of feeling the spiritual peace or “certainty” he expected, he reportedly stood up and thought (or whispered), “Who knows if it is true?” Maybe God requires a 100 steps, and/or a Pater Noster and a Hail Mary on each step? How do we satisfy perfection?
While teaching the Epistle to the Romans, Luther came to understand that righteousness before God was not something earned but something given through faith. This realization became the shock that led to the Protestant Reformation. The chain from Habakkuk to Paul gained another link,
The discovery of “justification by faith” brought profound personal relief to Luther and soon spread across Europe. This shift was a geopolitical seismic event: when the established Church in Rome collided with these simplified Biblical truths, the resulting “shockwaves” permanently fractured the monolithic religious landscape, forcing a complete reordering of the map of Europe.
Wesley and the Shock of Methodism Two centuries later, the same truth again changed a life—with far-reaching consequences.
John Wesley devoted himself to rigorous discipline and the pursuit of holiness. Yet he lacked assurance about his standing with God. That insecurity was exposed during his 1735 voyage to Georgia.
Mid-Atlantic, a storm so violent struck, that even the experienced sailors were terrified.. Waves crashed over the deck, sails tore apart, and passengers panicked, certain they would die. Wesley, though a devout Anglican priest, found himself afraid—without the calm confidence he thought he possessed.
In stark contrast, a group of Moravians calmly sang hymns through the chaos. When Wesley later asked if they had been afraid, their answer was simple: they were not—even their children faced death without fear.
The moment unsettled him deeply. Wesley realized he had religion, but not assurance. His faith was disciplined and sincere, yet lacked the settled trust he saw in them.
The storm did not convert him, but it destabilized him in the best way. It forced a question he could no longer avoid: did he truly trust God, or merely practice religion?
On May 24, 1738, while listening to Luther’s commentary on Romans, Wesley felt his “heart strangely warmed.” He came to trust in Christ alone for salvation.
That shift transformed his preaching. Its impact spread rapidly, helping spark a national awakening. Some historians even suggest it played a role in England avoiding a revolution like France’s.
The Shock in America The same doctrine ignited the First Great Awakening in eighteenth-century America.
Preachers like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards confronted a comfortable assumption: that being right with God came through birth, baptism, or respectable behavior. For many, religion had become little more than inherited custom. Justification, they insisted, comes by faith alone—not by family background, moral effort, or outward religion. A person is made right with God only through a personal, inward trust in Jesus Christ.
Whitefield called people to the “new birth,” pressing for inner transformation rather than external reform. Edwards argued that true religion consists of “holy affections”—a heart genuinely reshaped by love for God. Faith, in their preaching, was not mere agreement, but deep reliance.
This shifted Christianity from cultural assumption to personal encounter. It unsettled the self-assured, yet opened the door to all: anyone could be reconciled to God through faith.
Removing the Bottleneck The Awakening didn’t just change the message—it changed how it spread.
Before the revivals, preaching was largely confined to ordained clergy, creating a natural bottleneck. Growth was slow, limited by how many ministers could be trained and installed.
But if faith is personal, then testimony becomes universal. Those who experienced new life began to speak of it. The result was explosive: the rise of lay preaching.
Methodists and Circuit Riders John Wesley’s decision to authorize lay preachers multiplied the movement overnight. Circuit riders carried the message across vast distances—on horseback, in fields, homes, and frontier settlements—spreading Methodism far beyond the reach of traditional structures.
The Baptist Grassroots Model The Baptists, with their emphasis on local leadership and personal testimony, were already positioned for this shift. Lay preaching fit naturally. Ordinary people with a clear conversion and a gift for speaking could lead, enabling rapid growth across the South and West.
Lay preaching didn’t just support the revival—it fueled it. The message created transformed people; lay preaching turned them into messengers. Together, they reshaped the American religious landscape.
The Personal Shock
The impact of justification by faith is not only historical; it is deeply personal.
In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul writes: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The passage continues through Romans 5:1–12, describing the remarkable results of justification: peace with God, access to God, hope, and glory in suffering, and the assurance of reconciliation, all made real in the power of the Holy Spirit.
For countless individuals throughout history, these words have brought profound relief. The fear of never being good enough is replaced with the confidence that acceptance with God rests on Christ’s work rather than human effort.
A Message That Continues to Change Lives
From the revelation to Habakkuk, Paul’s proclamation in the first century, Luther’s rediscovery in the Reformation, to Wesley’s awakening of heart, the doctrine of justification by faith has repeatedly brought renewal.
It reminds us that the foundation of the Christian life is not human achievement but divine grace.
And whenever that message is rediscovered, it has the power to transform both history and the human heart.
What’s In It For Me?
“Revived” medically speaking, is a miracle – a dead body is brought back to life. That, in a spiritual sense, is what happens when someone trusts in Christ. Baptism mirrors this miracle. We are baptized or initiated into His death and Resurrection. It can be compared to a marriage ceremony where the parties say“I do”. “I do” must not be construed as “I did it!” -as if the ceremony was the conclusion. it IS a done deed, but with the promise to keep up at it, loving, honoring, tending,
And that is a description of revival. It begins when you say “I do” to Jesus. That “first love” needs constant renewal, or revival. Each time we feel distant, the way back is to say “I do” in response to God’s question
Say “I do” now! Maybe for the first time. Maybe for the hundredth time. It is a process of falling in love, growing in love and staying in love.
Justification by Faith can sound as abstract as E=mc². Applying it will change your life. Three familiar pictures give us insight: a courtroom, a debt, and acceptance.
The Courtroom
The evidence is undeniable and the verdict is clear: you are guilty. Justice requires the judge to pronounce the sentence. But before the sentence is carried out, someone else steps forward and offers to pay the penalty. Payment is followed by the announcement, “You are free to go”.
That declaration does not mean the wrong never happened. It means the penalty has been dealt with, and the judge now declares that justice has been satisfied. This is the picture used in the New Testament. Because of what Jesus did, God—the Ultimate Judge—clears your record and officially labels you “Right With Him”. The wall between you and God is gone, the distance is closed, and the relationship is fully restored
The Debt
Imagine owing a sum of money so large that you could never repay it. No matter how hard you worked or how long you tried, the obligation would remain. Then someone else steps in and pays the entire amount. The creditor stamps the record: “Paid in Full”.
Your circumstances change immediately. The debt is gone—not because you paid it, but because someone else did. Your record has been cleared. This is how the gospel describes the removal of guilt. The burden we could never discharge is settled through the work of Christ, and the record is changed.
Acceptance
Imagine living in a country as an illegal alien, living in the shadows with unrelenting fear. This is the spiritual reality of our existence. You may think that acceptance works like climbing a ladder. The thinking goes like this: improve your life, try harder, and become better until your status changes from alien to citizen. The common idea is that acceptance with God depends on our performance.
Justification turns that idea upside down. God declares a person right with Him through trust in Christ. Acceptance comes first! The importance of this cannot be overstated! Obedience then follows—not to earn favor, but as a grateful response to grace already given. Love becomes the engine that drives the changes; we are no longer duty-bound, but love-struck. Instead of striving to achieve acceptance, the believer begins with acceptance and lives in grateful response to it.
The Heart of the Idea
The courtroom explains the declaration. The debt explains the cancellation. Acceptance explains the new relationship that follows.
The Reality Goes Much further:
The Judge invites the pardoned sinner into His home as a family member. The canceled debt is replaced with spiritual riches in Christ. Acceptance is not a formal handshake; it is a warm embrace. In each instance, the guilty person is not left on the sidewalk to figure things out. A life of communion with God commences.
Peace!
When news of Lee’s surrender and the end of the Civil War reached the capital, the city was “set on fire” with joy. Government buildings were illuminated with thousands of candles, and massive crowds gathered outside the White House. One-hundred-gun salutes fired throughout the day, brass bands played on every corner, and crowds stayed in the streets all night. Accounts describe formerly enslaved people falling at Lincoln’s feet. He famously told them to kneel only to God.
Do not let this be a classroom lecture where you are dulled by the math and drawing daisy chains in the margins of the textbook! The grace of our Brother Jesus has demonstrated the love of God our Father. Now, receive the gift as it is made real in the power of the Holy Spirit. Fire a hundred-gun emotional salute; whatever separated you from God is now swept away, and He embraces you as a long-lost child, weeping with joy at your restoration.
Faith is sometimes misunderstood as a single moment of belief, as if it were simply agreeing with a statement. In the Bible, however, faith is more like a developing relationship. One helpful way to understand this dynamic is through the metaphor of marriage. Just as marital intimacy develops over time, faith grows through specific stages
1. Acquaintance
Every relationship begins with an introduction. Two people meet, and while they may know a few facts, the relationship remains distant. Faith often begins this same way—as an awareness of God and Jesus Christ. At this stage, a person has simply become acquainted with the message
2. Getting to Know
Acquaintance leads to deeper knowledge.
As people spend time together, they begin learning about each other’s character, values, and intentions. Conversations grow longer. Understanding grows clearer.
Faith develops similarly. A person begins to explore what the Bible says, perhaps encountering writings such as the Epistle to the Romans or the accounts of Jesus’ life in the Gospels. The individual begins to see the character of God more clearly and to understand what the message means.
3. Courtship
When interest deepens, the relationship moves into courtship—a time of testing and discovery. Two people ask whether they can entrust their lives to one another, moving from gathering information to considering commitment. In the life of faith, this stage involves wrestling with the claims of Christ and asking if one is willing to entrust themselves to Him.
4. Courtship Grows into Trust
Healthy courtship leads to trust.
Trust forms when someone’s character proves reliable. Over time, confidence grows that the other person will keep their word.
Faith reaches a similar point. The individual becomes persuaded that Christ is trustworthy. The message proclaimed by writers like Paul the Apostle—that God justifies those who trust in Christ—begins to move from an idea to a conviction.
5. Trust Leads to Commitment
Trust eventually leads to commitment.
In marriage, two people publicly commit their lives to one another. The relationship is no longer tentative. A new bond has been established.
Faith also involves commitment. A person entrusts themselves to Christ. This is the point where faith becomes personal reliance rather than mere understanding.
6. Commitment Grows into Enjoyment
Marriage does not end with the wedding ceremony. The relationship continues to grow in companionship, joy, and shared life.
Faith also leads to enjoyment. As trust deepens, the believer begins to experience the peace, freedom, and gratitude that come from knowing God. The relationship matures over time.
Enjoyment Keeps Growing
Seen this way, faith is not merely a moment of belief but a growing relationship.
It begins with acquaintance. It deepens through understanding. It moves through trust and commitment. And it grows into enjoyment.
Like a marriage that matures over the years, faith becomes richer as the relationship with Christ deepens.
The Challenge: Where Is Your Relationship?
If faith is a marriage rather than a contract, it cannot remain static. It is either drifting or deepening. Take a moment to honestly assess where you stand in this progression:
Are you stuck at Acquaintance? You know the facts and the history, but you’ve never moved toward a personal “getting to know” phase.
Are you in a permanent Courtship? You have been weighing the claims of Christ for years, but you are hesitant to move from “evaluating” to “entrusting.”
Has your Commitment lost its Enjoyment? You made the vow long ago, but the daily companionship and shared life have become a matter of duty rather than a living, breathing relationship.
The Next Step:
A marriage doesn’t grow by studying the concept of marriage; it grows by spending time with the spouse.
This week, don’t just “think about” your faith. Speak to God with the same honesty you would use with a partner. Move past the facts and toward the Person. Whether you need to move from acquaintance to trust, or from commitment to enjoyment, the invitation remains the same: Come and see.
Tom, a recovering alcoholic, faced another challenge: to quit smoking. He confessed to many failed attempts. I asked what was the worst part. He said the first four days were torture for his family; he was like a bear with a sore head and impossible to live with. I wanted to climb Mount Whitney and proposed we take four days to do it so that he could “bear” it out in a remote location. As a pilot, Tom suggested a scouting flight over the 14,505-foot peak before we set foot on the trail.The view was an awe inspiring contrast of snow-capped sentinels and the parched Mojave Desert until the musing was shattered. At 16,000 feet, the wind attacked. The aircraft bucked violently, the wind torqued the plane so violently that the passenger door wrenched open, and I found myself staring down at Lone Pine. From that altitude the layout looked remarkably like a cemetery.
In that moment when I thought I was going to die, I discovered a calm. It is this tension—facing death—that defines genuine faith. True faith is not the panic during the storm, but the calm trusting confidence in God.
Here he takes the next step: “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint” (Habakkuk 2:1).
God responds with a vivid contrast: “The arrogant person stands tall in his own eyes, confident in his strength, his intellect, his position. But something inside him is twisted. His inner life is misaligned. His confidence rests on himself, and that foundation is unstable.
In contrast, the righteous person lives differently. He does not rely on pride, power, or appearances. He lives by trust—steady, enduring trust—in God. His life is sustained not by self-assertion, but by faithfulness.” (2:1-4)
The contrast is sharp. One life is powered by self-reliance; the other is sustained by trust. The proud person may look secure, but his foundation is unstable. The righteous person may look vulnerable, but his foundation is firm. It is about what you lean on when the world shakes.
God resolved the crisis in a single sentence: “The righteous shall live by his faith.” That is the essence of the Christian message. The trajectory of “the just” can be explored: it began as covenant loyalty—a desire to walk faithfully with God—was replaced by increasingly detailed interpretations of keeping the Law. Over time righteousness was measured by precision that required breath taking analysis rather than trust. The commandments multiplied in straining to apply them. In such an atmosphere, God was experienced less as a gracious companion, a Deliverer and more as an Examiner, fussy and stern. Against this drift, God’s words stand clear: life does not flow from meticulous self-effort, but from steadfast trust.
What began as a heartfelt desire to please God morphed into self-righteousness. It became a system of performance, defined by being meticulous to a bewildering extent. A person’s standing before God was measured by output. Obedience was no longer a response to love, but a ladder used to secure acceptance. God upended this climb. Being “just” was not about the height reached on the ladder of performance, but about the gracious bestowal of Friendship.
To be justified is to stand in a right relationship with God—to be friends with God. “Justified by faith” describes a grace-based relationship that rests not on performance or accumulated merit, but on trust in Christ’s finished work. Obedience is a response to love, not a test to pass.
Love Struck or Duty Bound
Performance-based relationships keep us measuring, striving, fearing.
Grace-based relationships replace anxiety with assurance and striving with gratitude.
Whenever this truth—that we are justified by faith alone—is rediscovered, it acts like a match to dry wood.
Martin Luther in the 16th century was trapped in a system of religious performance and indulgences. When he realized that Habakkuk’s and Paul’s words offered a way out through trust, he renounced the system. That change of perspective started the Reformation.
John Wesley was shaken by his fear of death during a violent transatlantic crossing, in contrast to Amish emigrants singing joyfully. Later, while listening to a reading of Luther’s preface to Romans, he found his heart “strangely warmed.” He moved from trying to be a Christian to trusting the Christ who had already done the work.
This “strangely warmed heart” was instrumental in the Great Awakening in the USA. It was characterized by the realization that God was not a distant judge to be appeased, but a present reality to be encountered by anyone standing on the watchtower of faith.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones of Westminster Chapel insisted that justification by faith and the benefits in Romans 5:1–11—peace, access, hope, and meaning, even in suffering—are the heart of Christian experience. And they are the result of Jesus our Lord being delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. (Rom 4:31)
By abandoning the ladder of self-effort, the focus moves from the climber to the Creator. We long for peace and hope; for that we need access to God. We long for an explanation of suffering; for that we need perspective. These longings belong to our existence as moral beings.
To be justified is to stand in a right relationship with God—to be friends with God. “Justified by faith” describes a grace-based relationship that rests not on accumulated merit, but on trust in Christ’s finished work.
Performance-based relationships keep us measuring, striving, fearing. Grace-based relationships replace anxiety with assurance and striving with gratitude.
Imagine yourself in a small ship on a violent sea. Thunder splits the sky, and waves rise like mountains, dropping you into valleys so deep that the world disappears. In the trough of the wave, you see nothing but walls of shifting water; the horizon is gone, and the shore is a memory.
Then, a Word breaks through the roar of the storm, like a shaft of illumination from a lighthouse:
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” — Habakkuk 2:14
When you are in the trough, the light vanishes. You are surrounded by the spray and the dark. But as you crest the wave, you see it gain—steady, and unwavering.
“But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” — Habakkuk 2:20
The lighthouse never shifted; it did not flicker or fail. Only your position changed. These promises are beams of light from a distant, permanent shore.
Those who know God trust Him. When the foundation of our world begins to crack, we don’t lean on our circumstances; we lean on our deepest-held certainty: God as the only absolute. God is not destabilized by what destabilizes you.
Persevering Faith
I saw this lighthouse-faith in my friend Julia. She faced a rare and deadly metastasis of melanoma; what had begun on her skin had migrated to her lungs. There was no known treatment at the time. The prognosis was six months of life remaining.
Her physician proposed an aggressive, unproven course of action. There were no guarantees, only severe side effects and a slim margin of hope. In a profound act of surrender, Julia had faith in him and entrusted her life to his hands.
The path was brutal: thirteen chemotherapy cocktails, administered three weeks apart. Each infusion left her depleted for an entire week. Her skin burned a vivid red against her blonde hair. She had every reason to quit. As each appointment approached, the dread intensified. But she kept returning. Today, the cancer is defeated. She lives now with gratitude sharpened by the edge of survival.
The Anatomy of Trust
Julia’s faith was not merely what she professed with her lips; her faith was that she kept showing up. To abandon the treatment would have been to abandon confidence in the promise.
Habakkuk wrestled with this question: Can God be trusted in a collapsing world? In his day, national life was unstable and international powers were predatory. We live shaky lives in a shaking world that grows more shaky by the day.
Habakkuk anchored himself not in his circumstances, but in God’s character. He affirmed that God is Holy, God is the Rock, and God is enthroned. The lighthouse stands outside the storm; it is not subject to the tides.
Trust is not the repetition of a creed. It is the act of returning for the next appointment. It is enduring the side effects of a life of faith. It is standing in silence before the Lord when the waves rise high enough to obscure the light.
Faith is perseverance under promise.
Coming Next: From the Trough to the Tower
In the midst of the storm, we look for the Lighthouse to survive the next wave. But what happens when we step out of the ship and onto the solid ground of the Rampart?
Next, we’ll explore God’s word to Habakkuk – the just live their faith.—a posture of anticipation that sparked the Reformation, warmed the heart of John Wesley, and fueled the Great Awakening, and is the key to a full Christian experience. Don’t just endure the storm; learn how to watch for the dawn.
I once had the terrifying experience of getting lost in Minsk, Belorussia.. With rising panic, I tried to retrace my steps, but nothing registered. No one spoke English and people shrugged then ignored me when I asked for help, the signs were all in Cyrillic, the phone booths were stripped of equipment, bare wires protruding and smelling of urine. I felt doomed until, in entirely the wrong direction according to my perceptions, I saw the monument outside the metro station where I disembarked every morning on my way to teaching at The International Leadership Academy. The recognition of that landmark was the critical turning point that allowed me to reorient myself.Habakkuk 1:12–17 presents a crisis that every pilgrim eventually faces. It isn’t just that God is silent; it’s that His actions feel hostile—even evil. Habakkuk looks at the brutal Babylonians and anguishes over the mystery. “Why do You stand idly by while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?”
Pilgrims are disoriented by the mysterious ways of God, impacting their mindset and the trajectory of their lives. Pull out of the flow of alarmed thought, and switch your bewildered focus from the circumstances to God.
Habakkuk 1:12–17 presents a crisis that every pilgrim eventually faces. It isn’t just that God is silent; it’s that His actions feel hostile—even evil. Habakkuk looks at the brutal Babylonians and anguishes over the mystery. “Why do You stand idly by while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?”
Pilgrims are disoriented by the mysterious ways of God, impacting their mindset and the trajectory of their lives. Pull out of the flow of alarmed thought, and switch your bewildered focus from the circumstances to God.
Stop! Look for a Landmark!
Notice Habakkuk’s focus on God as Holy. “Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die.”
The “Sun-ness” of God: Holy means Distinct
To reorient, we must understand God as our landmark, specifically His holiness. Think of the difference between a drawing of the sun and the actual sun. You can look at a sketch, touch the paper, and understand its shape. But you cannot “touch” the sun; its heat, power, and brilliance would vaporise you long before you made contact.
Holiness is God’s “sun-ness.” He is not just a better version of us; He is a different kind of being entirely. However, this “otherness” does not mean He is inaccessible. Like the sun, God is too great to be controlled, but He is also too present to be ignored. The sun is 93 million miles away, yet its “sun-ness” is exactly what allows it to reach across the vacuum of space to sustain life. His transcendence (being above us) is precisely what makes His immanence (being with us) possible.
When you are lost you must find a landmark that is fixed. Because God is “Holy”—the “Sun-ness” outside of our creation—He is the only truly fixed point. When Habakkuk stood on his watchtower, he didn’t look at the Babylonian army to find his peace; he looked at the “Sun-ness” of God.
To use this landmark:
Acknowledge: Accept that you cannot understand the “why” of every event. God begins where our data collection ends.
Trust: Even when you can’t feel the heat, the “Sun-ness” of God remains.
Reorient: Use His attributes to determine your position. If God is eternal, this crisis is temporary.
Distinct not Distant – The Personal Name: YHWH
“O LORD,” says Habakkuk. That is the personal name that God revealed to Moses when he tried to dodge going to tell Pharaoh, an absolute despot with no accountability, to let “my people go.” LORD (YHWH) describes His activity: “I am present as always,” available 24/7 with full attention. Unlike a human gatekeeper who might deny access, God’s attention is always full because His holiness tells us He is different.
Affirm these personal landmarks:
He is “LORD”. (YHWH)
He is “MY God”: A personal pronoun; respond to the personal invitation.
He is”my GOD“: The Hebrew word means “Almighty Creator”.
He is “Eternal”: He is outside the ebb and flow of history.
He is “Our Rock”: A firm foundation – a refuge outside of the debris flow.
The Voice That Sustains the Weary
Isaiah 50 addresses the darkness from the perspective of the Servant—the voice that sustains the weary. This is not the rehearsed art of an orator; it is a voice that carries weight because the speaker is literally nailed to a cross in the darkness.
During the unnatural night of the crucifixion, Jesus cries out in anguish: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet, after that cry of abandonment eventually comes the calm, trusting voice of faith: “Into Your hands I commend my spirit.”
Jesus acts as the bridge between the “Sun-ness” of God and our human frailty. Just as the atmosphere allows us to experience the sun’s light without being consumed by its raw heat, He is the “radiance of God’s glory”—the brilliance of the sun brought down to eye level. He absorbed the darkness so that we might walk in the light.
When you find yourself in the “pitch-black room” of a personal crisis, the natural instinct is to scramble for a flashlight—to fix the problem, find an answer, or force a resolution. But Isaiah offers a different strategy for the pilgrim: Stay.
Staying Upon YHWH – Leaning against a Rock
Staying is not a sign of defeat; it is a tactical choice of focus. It is the refusal to let the chaos of the immediate “alarmed thoughts” drown out the reality of the fixed landmarks. By orienting yourself toward the “Sun-ness” of God, you recognize that while you are currently in the shadow, the Sun itself has not moved, dimmed, or changed.
You are leaning against a Rock that is higher than the debris flow. You are listening to a Voice that has already navigated the deepest darkness and emerged with a calm, commendatory faith.
If you are walking in darkness, stay upon God until the sun rises. For the pilgrim, the morning is not just a possibility; because of who God is, it is an absolute certainty, the one and only sure thing in a changing world.
The Babylonians still invade. Jerusalem was sacked. Captivity lasted seventy years.
But Habakkuk, as we shall see, was not sighing anymore, after seeing, he began singing.
Overlooking the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the setting sun casting shadows in shades of cobalt and indigo, accentuating the crags and crevices with a fleeting, golden splendor, I heard an exhilarated cry: “We made it!”
A group had just arrived from the South Rim—a grueling, 11-hour trek across the heart of the canyon. I was instantly hooked. My gracious wife agreed to drive to our South Rim reservation, and I would hike the canyon.
Comparing routes on a map, the decision seemed like a no-brainer – the North Kaibab Trail was four miles shorter than the Bright Angel Trail. Looking back, it wasn’t a “no-brainer” — it was a case of “no brain.”
The Descent and the Warning
The descent to Phantom Ranch was magical, even mystical — the 14-mile drop of 6,000 feet was sheer delight – awe and wonder every step of the way. However, I was met with a sobering sign. In foot-high letters, it warned hikers not to take the Kaibab ascent lightly. My internal translation: “Don’t be an idiot. This might kill you.”
The plan was pre-arranged ans I was committed. I set off and the song in my heart soon became a groan. Those final seven miles took seven grueling hours.
I crested the rim as a different person, and the canyon was no longer just a postcard; it was an experience etched into my psyche.
From Place to Purpose
A pilgrim has a destination in mind, but along the way, a transformation occurs. The destination becomes a destiny — the deeper purpose a person grows into through calling, formation, and faithful response. It is a shift from “getting there” to “becoming the kind of person who belongs there.”
What exactly is our destination? For the pilgrim, the destination is to know the will of God. – “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
1 The Incidental Will of God
We naturally crave to know God’s will for our daily decisions. These are “incidental”. A passenger once asked a boat captain how he navigated a treacherous harbor entrance so unerringly.
“You see those three lights?” the captain replied. “I align my ship up until all three are in a single row. That alignment shows me the safe channel.”
Navigating the tricky waters of the journey requires alignment. Think of these Three Harbor Lights as your markers:
Circumstances: A true harbor light isn’t a door we kick down; it’s a path that clears as we walk in obedience.
Scripture: is the fixed light that never shifts. If a “circumstance” seems to lead toward something God prohibits, the lights are out of alignment. We don’t need a new sign when we already have a clear command.
Wise Counsel: In the heat of the journey, we often have “trail blindness” — choosing a shorter route because it looks faster on a map. Wise counsel provides the perspective of those who have walked these miles before us.
2 The Primary Will of God
Our ultimate destination is Heaven. However, the pilgrimage is about more than just a future arrival; it is about character formation en route. We seek to know God now so that Heaven, being face to face with God, is current enjoyment.
Paul prays for a “complete knowledge of His will. “The word for “know” used here—epignosis—is a composite word made up of the intensifier epi (think “epic”) joined to the verb “to know.” It is an intense, experiential, epic knowledge. It is the difference between reading a map of the Grand Canyon and hiking the Canyon for yourself. .
When we know God as Guide, Encourager, and Mentor, we aren’t just waiting for a distant reward. We are being forged in real-time, changed into the image of Christ — not through a legalistic keeping of rules, but through a delightful relationship. As the Psalmist says, “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand” (Psalm 37:23-24).
This internal delight isn’t meant to be lived in a vacuum, in a quiet corner of spiritual isolation. On the contrary, when we truly delight in Him, it creates a spiritual centrifugal force. The closer we get to the center — the more we rotate around the heart of God — the more powerfully we are propelled outward into the lives of others, propelled by the centrifugal force of God’s love into the thick of daily life. Like Ambassadors, we represent the King wherever our incidental lives are lived — from the stress of the workplace to the long silence of a hospital ward. We don’t just point the way to a distant country; we bring the life of that country into the room with us. Your experiential encounter with God isn’t just for your benefit; a pilgrim is an Ambassador representing God. It is in this sense that the destination — becoming like Him — becomes your destiny.
The Profound Gift of Presence
Jesus promised that He would give the Holy Spirit to be with us in His stead; it is as simple as receiving the gift He pledged.
When offered a piece of essential, life-saving advice, you receive it simply, by saying ““Thank you.” The same is true here. All that is required of you is to remember His promise and respond with gratitude. Jesus said, “if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
Don’t overcomplicate it, remember the promise, and say, “Thank you.” Say it so often that gratitude becomes your routine response to life. Say thank You for all the joy, say thank You for all the sorrow.
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