Faith is like a Salt Sea

Today I floated in a sea of salt.  It was so strange.  It wasn’t the picture I had in my head.  In fact, it was nothing like the picture in my head.  To look at it, you would never know that it was any different from any other body of water.  It was clear, there was movement, and you couldn’t “see” a difference.  Even as I entered the water I didn’t really “feel” a big difference expect that it was a bit more thick than usual water. It was still cool and refreshing to stand in. 

It wasn’t until I let go of my picture and stepped out into the water that my new picture started to form. I had to make a choice to step out and trust the water.  Trust what I knew to be true about the information that I had.  Then, when I leaned back the difference was there.  I realized that this water had in it the substance to hold me up and cause me to literally float.  I, like many others in the water today got experience something so unique and just plain cool.

I got to thinking about this body of water and it’s substance and found myself thinking about faith.  Hebrews 11:1 says,  

“Now faith is the substance(assurance) of things hoped for and the evidence (substance) of things not seen”.  

Today I got to experience a tangible application to faith in a place that has for it’s entire existence depended upon it.  When I got into the water I had to trust that what I had heard was real.  I had to trust that this water would hold me up and that I could let go and lay back into it.  It made no sense if I just looked at the water from the bank because from that spot it looked like any other really big lake.  It took going into the water and beginning the textural experience to discover and build my faith.  It took watching others who trusted, who knew from their own personal experience what to do and how to do it.  Most of all, it took my own desire to know and understand for myself.  Curiosity rose up inside my own heart and mind, over-riding what things appeared to be like or what the rational voices in my head were saying at that moment.  

You know those voices.  The ones that deny possibilities in favor of more rational and “logical” concepts of reality.

I chose to come on this trip Israel and say “yes”, to the possibilities before me.  I chose to step out in faith and trust the substance of that faith, even when “logical thought” might say, “No way! You can’t/shouldn’t do that.”  

Faith isn’t something you can put your hands on.  Much like the water of the Salt Sea, it is tangible only after you have stepped into it.  Only after you have trusted, let yourself go and released yourself to the possibilities.  

Hebrews 11 is all about the faith of those who lived in this land where I am now traveling.  They stepped out into faith and lived lives filled with possibilities because of it.  Those living in the land are part of that inheritance of faith.  Those of us fortunate enough to come here can feel their faith as we travel through the land.  It’s as tangible as the Sea of Salt.  It holds you up and gives substance to your journey.

What are those places where you find yourself needing to trust and release?  Where is your Salt Sea?  What is holding you back?