Contemplating Crazy Faith
The month of January I was fasting with my church for about twenty-one days. In addition to giving up certain things, I decided to finally begin the Crazy Faith series by Pastor Michael Todd from Transformation church. If you’re not heavy in the Evangelical Christian world, you probably don’t know, but Michael Todd is a young, Black pastor from Tulsa, Oklahoma. His church, Transformation, has been making some waves and is quickly becoming a mega-church, just a few years after Pastor Mike transitioned into leadership. Young people love his illustrations and how he keeps it real on the stage. He’ll tell you himself all the things that he has struggled with throughout his life over the pulpit to remind us all that pastors are regular people too.
Around November it was suggested to me that I listen to the Crazy Faith series because faith was one of the things I was struggling with the most. I was trying to find someone to take over my lease for me and trying to figure out what God wanted me to do at this next phase of my life. Honestly, I was feeling like praying doesn’t even matter because when I do, it seems like the opposite is what happens instead. At the time of suggestion, the sermon series was already about 15 weeks into the series and I was instantly deterred because “Who has that kind of time?!”
One week into Pray First, the 21 day of period my church sets aside for fasting, I remembered that I essentially have a plethora of time now, which I am trying to use to not only pursue my creative endeavors, but ALSO to get closer to God; so I decided to look up the Crazy Faith series on youtube. I am a pretty avid note taker at church, but one of the great benefits to watching sermons online is the ability to pause the video and scribble down furiously when something sparks you. And that’s what happened for me when Michael Todd brought out two chairs onto his stage for an example illustration.
The two chairs in question were one big, comfortable and secure looking chair, parallel to a tiny, little IKEA chair that looked precarious at BEST. Pastor Mike brought a man from the audience onto the stage and asked him which chair he trusts more to sit in. Almost immediately the man pointed towards the stately chair and Pastor Mike asked “What if I told you the other chair is God’s will for your life?” I cannot tell you how quickly I pressed the pause on that video and began to write.
God!!! It’s JUST an illustration, I get that, but WHY is it always the babyish, looking-like-less chair that’s Your will? And as quickly as I’d asked I got my answer. “It’s about trusting Me [God] and being obedient step by step. Even when something looks unsure, will you trust Me[God]? And as you follow my directions I’ll increase you and multiply you and lead you towards bigger, better chairs, but the whole time you’re choosing ME [God]. When you sit in the bigger chair, the sturdier chair you’re choosing yourself over Me [God]. You’re choosing your comfort, and your safety and you’ll stay there for longer and in fact might never reach the abundance I have [God has] for you because you enjoy your comfort. And because you enjoy being comfortable you’ll miss out on all I have [God has] for you.”
I kinda sat with that for a little bit and came up with my own illustration. If I wanted to go to the playground for my birthday and my mom came up to me and said “We can do what you want to do or I have a surprise for you that we could do instead,” (the surprise being a trip to Disney World). I would be stupid to settle for the playground over Disney World! But because we don’t know the future, we assume that whatever we want is greater than the surprise that God has for us. And the key factor that influences our decision making process is how we view God. For me the two biggest thoughts that affect me are: “Does He have the ability?” and “Does He love me that much?” The answers to both are a resounding yes, which intellectually I know, but I definitely don’t live as if I believe those things at all time. At the end of the day, anything God has for me is what’s best. <period.> And I have to remind myself of that often if I am going to live a life of faith.
A month later, I’m still only halfway through this series, but that is because I have listened to each message at least twice, some three times. It’s actually just THAT good and has been transformative for me in how I am continually walking out this life, attempting to walk by faith. Below, I’ve embedded the video for Crazy Faith Part 1. If you’ve watched it before, or you watch it now let me know how you liked it and if it has challenged or changed any of your thought patterns on faith!
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