Walking Into the Impossible

I was reading this morning about when Saul (the man who dragged Christians from their homes to jail) came face-to-face with Jesus on the road (Acts 9). Determined to stamp out this faction of Jesus followers, he was headed to do more damage. Christians would have been terrified to see him coming. But as he went along, a blinding light and voice from heaven stopped him, telling him to quit persecuting these people. Saul finally met Jesus and had to reckon with the reality of what he'd heard and his actions in kidnapping believers. He thought he was doing God's will, but now he was blind, with his pride and ambitions in shambles around him.And this is my favorite part—God tells a Jesus follower named Ananias to go to Saul at a certain house and pray for him. I can't fathom how that must have felt. Essentially, God instructed Ananias to seek out his worst enemy, the man desperate to hunt him down and imprison him, and present himself as a Christian. I would have thought I misunderstood God at that point. Even hearing a voice, it must have been tempting to rationalize it away as indigestion or his own imagination. But this was too crazy. Impossible.God was asking Ananias to walk into the one place he'd never go and talk to the one man he desperately wanted to hide from. The one comfort may have been God telling him Saul would suffer greatly for His name's sake. So Ananias probably thought—well, at least Saul is supposed to suffer. This terrible persecutor of Christians, and now God wants Ananias to pray for him and risk imprisonment.Yet he goes. And he calls Saul "Brother." He prays for Saul, who regains his sight, receives the Holy Spirit, and is baptized. In typical fashion, Saul immediately sets out preaching Jesus fervently. But Ananias had to walk into his fear, not because he was particularly strong, but because he believed what God said. He wasn't enough for this impossible task God asked, but he believed the Life within him might be. So he put one foot in front of the other toward this persecutor of the church.There are many times God asks me to do something terrifying or I simply don't want to do. I confuse having faith to believe God at His word with having the strength to get it done. I don't have the strength, wisdom, or anything I need for the impossible thing, but He does. So my part is the choice. I must say okay and start walking. And as I walk, I tell God how little I have, how scared I am, how ridiculous it seems that He wants me to do this. We aren't super Christians, but we walk in faith.Faith means believing God at His word, even when it's confusing. Did He really say that? Did I make it up? Did too much coffee cause that thought? I think we start with the obvious things He's called us to in His Word. He says to love our enemies—impossible without His Life, and I certainly balk at doing it. But it's His direction, and He will provide all we need for the impossible task. So we walk forward, asking Him to be everything for that situation because He claims He will meet all our needs. When loving an enemy, I desperately need His love because I have none! I choose to follow what He asked, start walking, and He provides the love. When I encounter that enemy, a supernatural thing happens as He fills every gap in my love, strength, patience—whatever I lack.He won't choose for me—I must do that. But His Life provides all the rest. This is how we do the impossible things He's called us to. Not because we are super spiritual Christians who have it figured out and try really hard. But because we are incredibly weak Christians who haven't a clue how to proceed, so we look to Jesus and His Spirit within for all we need.This is where the rubber meets the road in the Christian life. And if you don't buy it, try looking to Him when you don't have enough for the situation (which for me is all day, every day). When He is enough for that moment and the next and the next, we realize relying on Him to be all we need is the way to live.What impossible thing has He called you to today? Will you look to Him to be everything you need for that, and simply start walking?