God Sighting

When I read the story of Moses, most of the time I think to myself, “Why are these Israelites so whiny and doubting toward God? I mean, come on! He brings plagues; He parts the Red Sea; He feeds them for 40 years…What is their problem?" Almost every time I read a new verse, I see God doing something miraculous for them that causes them to believe again for about a millisecond before they turn away again.

Every time I think this, God always seems to say to me, “Whoa, Anna. Let's bring this back to you.” I basically then have a conversation with God in which I begrudgingly admit that I'm exactly like the Israelites. I realize that, in my own life, I feel like if God isn’t doing what I think He should be doing, then He must have abandoned me. This mindset can stem from any situation, but it happened for me often in my role as an FCA student-leader. Sometimes I felt like I was just not doing things right.

A couple of years ago we had no teachers, no coaches, no student-leaders. All we had was Mr. Mierow, our FCA area representative who opened up his home once a month and allowed us to hang out or lead our weekly devotionals. He endured quite a bit with us, even when, most of the time, we would only have four kids show up. He truly was a godsend! But, these low attendances were discouraging. I thought, “Okay, God, where are You? We’re Your people, and we know that You’ve chosen whomever comes each week. But four?”

The next year was different though. God went crazy with our FCA! We ended up getting a teacher, having a student leadership team, organizing a school service project, having a group of 25 come to one of our morning devotionals, and 15 coming consistently each week! God revealed Himself to us in an overwhelming way. And to top it off, I was able to talk to a man who wanted to start an FCA Huddle at two area schools, and then I came home and got an e-mail from my high school’s rival school about their new FCA Huddle!

I just had to start laughing. When God shows His wonders, He sometimes goes all-out. In one day I heard about three FCAs in my school’s conference starting up! What a God “sighting!”

But here’s the lesson. We can’t just believe God is working when times are amazing. It’s during those times when four people show up to FCA, when we have a slump in our season, when we bomb a test. That’s when we have to keep the faith. I’m coming to realize that true faith involves enduring even when we have nothing to encourage us but God’s truth.

Today, let those God sightings encourage you, and remember them when times are tough. Great is His faithfulness!