These Three

            What if we never took a step of faith? How many valleys of discouragement, storms of despair, and rivers of doubt we might never see crossed and conquered by the faithful, enduring arm of our Father!

            What if we never hoped beyond what we already have and see? How many shadows of death and shades of defeat and voices of denial we might never see silenced and subdued by the imperishable, eternal Word!

            What if we never risked loving and giving ourselves away to another? How many painful tears, bitter words, and evil deeds we might never see vindicated, transformed, and healed by the longsuffering grace of our King!

            Steps of faith have so much to say to us, so much to teach us. Hope has so much to reveal to us. Risks of love have so much to give back to us, so much to bless us with. But a life apart from acts of faith, hope, and love are sure to be muddled by fears, doubts, selfishness unto restlessness, and autonomy unto cold isolation.

            We imagine that those who never risk never lose, but we forget that it is those who are without faith—and without hope—who become like waves of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind, unstable in everything. We imagine that it is better to keep back than to give, that it is safer to protect ourselves from hurt, but we forget that the loneliest people are those who have lost the ability to share with others.

            But those who choose steps of faith and anchor themselves with hope as they risk giving themselves away in love soon find an undeniable phenomenon at work in them.

            The stepping out in faith brings about greater certainty, and leads them to greater trials; and yet with each subsequent step of faith, assurance returns, stronger than before.

            The clinging onto hope gives them a clearer picture of the future, and leads them to see greater depths of darkness; and yet with each moment spent facing the void, the light shows itself more visibly.

            The risk of loving and giving themselves away leads them to great satisfaction, and then to a capacity for emptiness they never fathomed they could reach; and yet this leads them to an exorbitant experience of outpoured grace that causes them to shake their heads in disbelief at the great smallness of their own hearts.

            Faith, hope, and love remain because they can only move in the direction of increase; doubt, fear, and selfishness can only move in the opposite direction.

            Step forward, though the gravity of evil should pull you down; take hold of hope, though the black shadows surround you; risk giving yourself away, though utter emptiness overtakes you—and find faith revived, hope restored, love revealed. A hundredfold.

-R