Patti Burris

2 Corinthians 5:7

For we live by faith, not by sight.

I have loved researching my Mormon Pioneer ancestry. It was a long, difficult journey from Denmark to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1861, but they chose to leave their homeland, believing they would find something better. My great great grandmother, Anna Mette Jensen was 18 at the time. She made the journey with her parents and 2 brothers. They left her 2 older siblings behind in Denmark. The part that really inspired me was that Anna and her brothers walked 1000 miles between Florence (now Omaha), Nebraska and Salt Lake City. All of the kids walked. They walked! I know they had made the journey with their parents, but they HAD to have believed that there was something more for them. I believe that even the kids had hope for a better life, that God had more in store for them than what they were living. I believe that the kids chose to trust in their parents, just like God wants us to trust Him. They walked by faith.

I am not a Mormon, but I admire the faith they had in God. They left everything they had, because they chose to believe that God had a plan for them. I don’t believe that any of them did this on a whim. They were responsible adults, parents that believed in God for a better life.

I admire these pioneers, because so often I have let fear keep me from walking by faith. I have been so afraid of losing control that I lose sight of a God who has EVERYTHING under control. I have failed God and I have failed myself. I believe that God has something more for me. I believe that there is a risk that I am supposed to take, a cliff that I need to jump off of, a ladder I need to climb. It scares me. It terrifies me, this idea of trusting an unseen God with my life. Can I really call this living, if I am not living radically for God? Is this really what life is supposed to be? Doesn’t God want us to be so on fire for Him that it doesn’t matter what the risk is. If we aren’t living that life, then are we living at all?

Just my thoughts on being totally, completely sold out to God. If God has called you to something bigger than yourself, if you have a gi-normous dream that you think is unrealistic. I am urging you to trust God. Walk by faith, not by your current circumstances, your lack of money, or lack of resources. God has all the resources in the universe in the palm of His hand and will use them for you, if you believe.

I see the edge of the cliff ahead of me. Do you see it? I’m jumping. Are you? Take my hand and we can jump together. God has this and He won’t let us fall.