My definition of faith is believing something exists when all your senses tell you it doesn’t. Today I accept that from a very young age, I understood God loved me, and along the rocky road of my life – God’s heart has held me close.
On these grounds, after many challenging experiences, I found being attracted to a missionary lifestyle quite normal. One reason for this was, being close to God gave me a sizable measure of peace and security.
The second reason was that I wanted to share this closeness to God with others.
While it gave me this peace and security, missionary life was very far from an easy way of living.
One example was that I had given up a promising career with many benefits, including an up-market company car. When I became a missionary, I gave up all these trappings. As a result, when I resigned from my job, I was without any reasonable form of transport.
I spoke to God about this issue and explained that it was pretty challenging to do my missionary work without a decent car, so please would God supply me with one. If I could arrange a similar model as the company car I used, that would be the ‘cherry on the top’!
As a fledgling missionary, I had learned God did not answer my requests verbally; furthermore, my understanding of timing certainly never matched God’s. But I waited….and waited, and no car arrived.
One day a friend asked me to travel with him to attend a business meeting. He asked if I would address the session with some words of encouragement. My friend’s company paid all costs so it was not difficult for me to agree to his request.
We flew the one thousand-odd kilometer trip to the meeting and stayed overnight in a comfortable and friendly family home belonging to one of the business people.
The meeting went excellently, and I spoke on the subject of ‘Faith in Hard Times’, as I knew the audience were all businessmen feeling the pinch in an economic downturn. I explained how I found my situation regarding my transportation very confronting, but having spoken to God on the issue, I was content (if not a little impatient) to leave the matter in God’s hands.
At the end of the meeting, a young man approached me and asked many questions about our work in the mission field. He explained he was an upmarket auto dealership salesman and asked if I would come to his showroom the following morning. He arranged to fetch me and then take me to the airport after the visit.
I said I would be happy to join him, but he should know I did not have the cash to buy a new car. He assured me that he understood my position.
The following morning, bright and early, he collected me, and we drove to the showroom. What a sight, all those beautiful, shining, new cars. Aaah…..the smell of leather seats, topped off with cups of cappuccino, was almost too much.
“If you had the cash,” he asked softly over his cappuccino, “Which car would you choose”? It took me all of a second to make the decision. “Right,” he said, “I will arrange a test drive.” “Whoa”! I stammered anxiously, “I told you about my situation; how can I test drive a car that I can’t afford to buy” I uttered uneasily. He smiled and said firmly, “Follow me.” The test drive car-wise was about as good as it gets here.
Arriving at the airport and catching my arm as I stepped out of the car, the young man said, “Not so fast – let’s pray about your car.” He prayed a short, simple prayer, asking God to supply the means to buy the car. Then he looked me in the eye, “Now, have faith and believe”!
Peter James