Talking to some friends recently about our mad marriage “skills”– which we think must be fairly decent since we don’t throw knives at each other– I began to think.  What are four core areas that have helped us be successful over the past 14 years?  Like any good list, all my points start with the same letter.

At the moment, my favorite book of the Bible is Genesis.  From the very beginning, God sets a very active pattern.  He sees something that is not as though it already is, and then speaks it into existence, creating a new reality in which that something then exists.  This operation of faith is always applied to chaos and the result is a new order.  Faith is not hard for God.

It may seem a bit odd to say that God has faith, but it is the essence of who He is and how He operates.  Faith is being certain of what is unseen.  He is equally sure of what is not yet in existence as He is of the current state of the chaos.  For us then, faith is being able to look into that chaos and see something that is about to become our substance.  One of God’s biggest challenges through the ages seems to be convincing His creation of their duty, and ability, to live out this kind of faith.