My First Message: What Faith Looks Like

Our weekly meetings at UH Hilo run similarly to a church service, only with the message aimed at college students and some get-to-know-you games and some snacks thrown in.  Our campus director usually spoke at these meetings, but the STINTers were also given a chance to speak at some of these meetings.  In late April I gave a message.  It was the first time I've spoken in that kind of setting.  So, for your perusal and enjoyment, here is the transcript of the first message I ever gave.  I've bolded the main points for skimming purposes and provided links to the NIV references of Bible verses I cited so you can read the chapter for yourself.  Hope you enjoy!

What does Faith Look Like?

Faith is something that’s talked about a lot in the Bible. So why is faith important? To answer that, let’s look at a really quick summary of the overarching message of the gospel: 

Basically, God is holy, good and perfect. Humans, by nature, choose to do evil things that are not good and are imperfect and we deserve to be separated from what is good and holy. However, God loves us so much that he was willing to come in the form of Jesus and pay the death penalty himself, so that we might be spared and have eternal life with Him. This amazing gift of life God gives us is called grace. And we receive this grace through faith, as Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us:

"8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast."

So we see that the Bible says that the way we receive this awesome gift is through faith. But even though I professed to be a Christian and believe in Christianity for a really long time, I didn’t know whether or not I actually had any faith. While I don't believe I have the time (or knowledge) to make a comprehensive definition of what faith is, I want to paint a picture of how the Bible portrays faith so we can get a better grasp on what it looks like to have faith in our lives.

Hebrews 11 is a great place to look at what faith looks like because it give us a whole catalogue of people who were faithful to God. I encourage you to read the book yourselves and take a look at these stories. But the verse one gives us a pretty upfront definition of faith: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. "

In order to see how faith works in these stories let’s look at just one of these examples. I chose Moses because thanks to Dreamworks' Prince of Egypt, people are a little more familiar with his story. But if you missed the Bible and the film, here’s a quick summary of Moses’ life—

Moses is part of a people group called the Israelites, who are God’s chosen people. The people of Israel were enslaved to the Egyptians, but the Israelites started to get too numerous and the Pharoah was afraid of a revolt, so he ordered all the baby boys under age two in Egypt to be killed. This is the atmosphere that Moses is born into. So when Moses is born, his mom puts him in a basket coated in pitch and floats the basket down the Nile River to save his life. The Pharoah’s daughter ends up finding the basket and raises Moses as her son. However, Moses allies himself with the Israelites and eventually ends up (through a series of plagues on the Egpytians) leading the Israelite people to freedom and becoming their leader on the way to the promised land.

So what does the Bible Say about Moses faith? 

Let’s take a look at what Hebrews 11 says. It talks about Moses in verses 24-27.

"24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible."

So, to start off: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”

One of the first things we can see in this passage is that faith begins with the choice we have to make when our way clashes with God’s way. Moses gets a choice, and so do we.

It’s safe to say Moses wanted to be an Egyptian prince. The benefits are obvious—Egypt is a huge economic and military power in the ancient world. But Moses knows that in order to follow God, he has to choose to be one of His people. It’s important to understand that Moses is doing more than choosing his immediate family in this story—Moses is choosing his God. Pharaoh is a human representative of the ancient Egyptian gods, so in making this decision, Moses is deciding that he is going to follow the God of the Israelites rather than the Egyptian gods. And Moses chooses God’s way instead of his own.

Everyone—not just Christians and people who believe in God, but everyone—will reach a point where their ways will clash with God’s ways and where they are going to make a choice on which way to follow. Maybe lying on my resume will make me look better for my job, or maybe God’s law says to give to the poor and money is a little tight right now…or maybe I just don’t want to do it. Our desires are by nature against the will of God, and we are going to be drawn to make decisions that are not in line with God’s will. Faith will require that we choose God’s way instead of our own.

So why choose God’s way instead of our own?

Well, let’s look at why Moses does it.

26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

Scripture tells us that the unseen reward of faith is better than the immediate reward of not following God.

Moses chooses the path he does because he was “looking ahead to his reward.” Throughout the Bible, God promises individuals a lot of different things—children, a country, freedom, strength—but all of God’s promises are better than the rewards of following your own way. And one thing God promises to everyone is Himself.

There are two things to note about the rewards that Moses pursues. The first is that these are promises. This means the reward we seek when we follow God will probably have a different timeline than the usually faster gratification of following our own ways. Moses spends years wandering in the desert before he becomes the leader of the Israelites. God is on a different timeline than we are, and when he promises to give us something, we have to trust that he will do so in His timing, not in ours. The second thing about promises is that we often don’t know how they will come about, because they are a gift of God, rather than something that we cause to happen or some reward we earn. But because it is a gift of God, it also better than the reward we can earn for ourselves.

For example, God promises Moses that he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses doesn’t know how or when this promise will be fulfilled. He can’t see how he’ll free the Israelites. But the promise God makes to Moses is better than the guarantee of following his own plans. In God’s plan, Moses will still be a leader, but he will lead his own people, and he will lead them to the Promised Land, which is a better land than Egypt.

In the same way, God promises us blessings for following him by faith. His grace offers us eternal life through Christ, which is pretty much better than anything.

Now it’s important to remember as we face these choices that we have to look at the promises of God, which are often not immediately apparent to us. 2nd Corinthians 4:18 talks about this when it says: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

If we aren’t looking at what God promises through Scripture and prayer, then we’re not going to evaluate this in our decision making. We’ll end up following our own path and miss out on the better promise.

But Faith requires more than recognition of an unseen promise. Faith requires action.

We see in the passage that Moses demonstrates his faith not just by his intellectual agreement with God’s laws, but by actually choosing to do what God said.

"27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. "

Faith reveals itself in action. Moses chooses and acts. He refuses to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Later he leaves Egypt against the wishes of Pharaoh.

Some people will look at Scripture, see the promises of God, and think, “Boy, those look good! I want those promises and the rewards of following my own way.” They will mentally assent to God’s will, but they won’t change their actions and choose to follow Him. 

James 2:14-17 talks about this divergence between thought and action pretty sharply: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

This is what we do a lot. We agree that “It is God’s will for me to help this person. That is what is good and right.” And then we do nothing and somehow expect to be rewarded for agreeing on what is the right thing to do.

God gives us a choice. We can follow the world’s way and receive the world’s rewards. Or we can follow God’s way and receive God’s promises. But hoping to receive God’s promises when you follow the world’s ways will only ever get you the world’s rewards. If you really want the rewards of God’s promises, your faith must show itself in action.

So, as you face these decisions and make this choice, prepare yourself and choose.

However, we must know that acting in faith will have consequences.

We see that Moses suffers for choosing to follow God: “25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

When we step out in faith we lose the pleasures and rewards of sin. Moses is denied the pleasures of sin. 

We will miss out on certain pleasures when we follow God. Moses doesn’t get to be an Egyptian prince. He is mistreated by the Egyptians and he spends the majority of his adult life wandering in the desert. It is absolutely necessary to recognize that this will happen so that you are not surprised and do not lose your faith because of it. 

There are two important things to recognize here. One is that when we act on faith, we will lose out on some of the temporary pleasures of this world. In America, we may lose comforts and friendships. In places not so friendly to the gospel, people can lose their jobs, their freedom, or even their very lives. We have to recognize that we will be risking or sacrificing things of this world so that when we act on faith we can be prepared for, rather than shocked by, that loss.

However, it is also important to remember that whatever we lose when we choose to follow God is a temporary loss. Pleasure dissipates in a moment. Money is spent. Friendships end. We have to remember that even life itself has an expiration date. What we lose when we have faith and follow God is something we were always going to lose eventually.

Finally, we must hold on to the ultimate reward: receiving the blessing of Christ.

“26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”

Moses is looking to his ultimate reward when he chooses to follow God. We must not forget the promises of God as we look towards making our decisions based on faith. We do not choose arbitrarily to deny ourselves the pleasures of sin. We do not turn down the kingdoms of this world for no reason. We are willing to make those sacrifices because we will receive the promises of God, and because the promises of God are eternal. God promises eternal life for those who choose to believe in Him. And God promises blessings, treasures, and rewards for those who seek to follow his laws. When we choose to be faithful, we choose to receive grace and the reward of eternal life.

One last thing: Don’t think you can escape this choice. Everyone reading this is on a path—you’re either following God’s way or following your own. And you will reap the rewards and consequences of the path you choose. Know what your choices are. Know the consequences. Choose wisely.

Recap Blog 7: Oahu Fellowship Dinner

UH Hilo is part of the University of Hawaii system, which covers thirteen campuses spread over four of the Hawaiian Islands.  While Cru hopes to eventually have a presence at all thirteen campuses, right now it’s on six.  Our movements operate independently, but all of us are part of a team, united in the vision of bringing the gospel to the college campuses of Hawaii.  This April we got to come together and talk to some of our community supporters about the work we do with students.

The Oahu Fellowship Dinner is an annual event where we invite our supporters and other members of the community to come share a meal with us and learn about our ministry.  It’s also a chance for us to present the financial needs of our ministry and ask our guests to become a part of seeing it happen by becoming financial partners.  Our STINT team flew out to Oahu to visit the UH Manoa campus, where the dinner was being held.

Because there is only one campus on the Big Island, most of the focus of the evening was on the ministry in Oahu.  We got to hear stories from students about how Cru had changed their lives.  One student became a Christian after hearing the love of Jesus through the Cru movement at her campus, another started going on missions and doing service work after working with Cru, and another is joining Cru staff in Hawaii to reach out to students the way the staff reached out to him.  These stories were just a sampling of the many students’ lives that have been touched by having a group like Cru on their campus.

Over 125 people came to the dinner that night, and they made a large contribution to the budget of Hawaii Cru next year.  It was another great reminder to see how many people are willing to invest in reaching students with the gospel.

The dinner was especially encouraging for me because it gave me hope and vision for the future of Cru at UH Hilo.  Cru at UH Manoa used to be a small movement.  Our staff director, Kent Matsui, used to lead the movement at Manoa.  Years ago, it looked very much like the ministry at UH Hilo does now.  At UH Hilo, the way we run meetings and Bible studies is a little experimental, because we don’t yet know what works in reaching students here.  The number of committed, involved students is small, which means it is difficult to get a movement with solid group identity and momentum. 

UH Manoa used to look very much like us, but now Hawaii Cru is beginning to flourish and see the fruit of the pioneering work that the Matsuis did years ago.  They have bible studies, meetings, and mission trips run by students, and their movement is large enough to begin expanding to other campuses in their area.  Cru at UH Manoa had to work through the early difficult phases of starting up a student group in order to see it become the large, organized, influential movement it is today.  It’s encouraging to see the potential future of this ministry.  Seeing the realized vision of the UH Manoa Cru gives more meaning and purpose to the work I do now, even if I don’t get to see the immediate fruit of it. 

The Hawaii Cru staff and student leadership at the Fellowship Dinner

The Fellowship Dinner was a great time in and of itself, but it also left me refreshed and ready to keep on trekking with work we’re doing at UH Hilo now.

Recap Blog 6: Birthday on STINT

While the fellow members of my STINT team are my co-workers in the ministry that I do at UH Hilo, during our hours not on campus they are also my family while I’m on the Big Island.  That meant when my birthday rolled around in March, they were ready to celebrate me, STINT-style.

My birthday began with my team “love-bombing” my door while I was asleep the night before.  We make personalized door decorations for each person’s birthday on our team.  Amanda’s door was covered in Star Trek insignia signs, Christine’s in Hello Kitty pictures, and Sarah’s was covered with chocolate.  I opened my door that morning to find my door decorated with a poster covered with haikus my team had written about me.  That was pretty spectacular.

One of the haikus posted on my door by my STINT team.  Aww.  Poetry in motion!

That night they got me dinner from Full Moon Café, a Thai restaurant that’s my favorite place in Hilo.  Everyone came over and we all did some line dancing; Katie taught Slappin’ Leather and I taught Wild Wild West and our team danced around the living room.  There aren’t a ton of places for me to dance in Hilo, and even where there are I didn’t really have friends there yet, so it was really special for me to get to dance with my friends that night.

Then it was time for cake and presents.  Christine and Kimiyo had MacGyvered a black forest cake although we lacked some pans and necessary ingredients for the real deal.  Tasty.  I also received the Super Mario Bros. movie on DVD (“It’s a Blast!” reads the box.  Seriously hilarious.), a TIE-fighter Lego set, samurai sword chopsticks and Boggle.  (I challenge anyone reading this to a match of Boggle.  It’s one of my favorite games and no one I know seems to like it as much as I do.  Sad day.)  Graciously my team played a few rounds of Boggle with me before bowing out and heading home for the evening.

That weekend I got to pick an activity for us to do, and so we ventured out to the volcano fields out at Volcano Park down south of us.  

Volcano fields.  We were standing on what was once flowing lava.

It was an incredible place, and one of the most unique landscapes I have ever seen.  The rock underneath you is black and porous.  Everywhere you can see where the ground was once flowing, and how it piled up in ripples and then cooled into solid masses.  You can see where the hot liquid lava took one route or another, and how it cracked and created crevasses once it became solid again.  The fields are right next to the ocean, so there is a cool, strong ocean breeze crossing over the fields all the time.  We walked out to where the cooled lava met the ocean, and watched the powerful waves crash and break on the black rocks.

  

Christine and I enjoy the ocean spray

The land looks desolate—across from the volcano fields there are forests, but here the vegetation was all burnt and destroyed from the molten rock covering everything.  But even though the black sand doesn’t look like it could produce anything, spots of green shoot up and stand out in the otherwise barren landscape.  We passed a lot of coconuts that had sprouted and were growing new trees.  As the light faded, we had to break out our flashlights, but further up on the mountain we could see the glow of red hot lava.  It was distant, but every once in a while it gave off a spurt of light.  Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see some more lava up close before I leave.

New life growing in the volcanic soil

All in all it was definitely a memorable birthday and one of my better ones.  The cake might not have been quite right and I was far from home, but it was a birthday where I felt known and celebrated.  And to me, that’s a good birthday.  

Recap Blog Post 5: 1,000 Cranes is More than you Think

Because our STINT team had been planning on going to Japan this year, when March rolled around, all of us were very aware of the coming of the one-year anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami.   Back when we were still planning on going to Tokyo, one of our big focuses for the year had been doing service work in areas where people are still displaced from their homes.  After we got rerouted to Hilo, we still had a desire to help the Tohoku survivors.  We knew whatever we did here wouldn't be a substitute for actually being there to help people, but we wanted to do something for the Japanese survivors who are still struggling and still without homes. 

In Japanese tradition, folding 1,000 origami paper cranes for someone will grant them one wish.  They are traditionally sent to people with a long illness, or given at weddings to wish the newlyweds years of prosperity and happiness.  They have often been sent to Tohoku survivors--if you look at the picture of the memorial from my Tohoku Earthquake anniversary post, you can see strings of cranes on the grave site.  We decided to fold a thousand cranes and send them to Japan’s Cru movement so they could take them to some of the earthquake survivors during their next trip up to Tohoku.  In order to get the UH Hilo students involved and to increase awareness about the continuing struggles of the tsunami survivors, we set up a table on campus to fold cranes and invited any passing students to come join us and fold a crane to add to the strings.    

Tabling on Campus.  Come fold cranes for the Tsunami Anniversary!

I was initially a little concerned about getting the project done on time.  The Friday before we tabled on campus our team took an hour to have crane-folding lessons from Kimi and Christine, and the first few cranes I folded were not fit to fly.  There are multiple ways to mess up an origami crane, and I’m pretty sure I found all of them that afternoon.  This actually came in handy later when I was teaching people, as I could tell where they had messed up, but at the time I just felt incompetent.  On Friday it took me about 5 minutes to fold a good crane.  I calculated that if students on campus didn’t help us out, at that rate it would take each STINTer over 9 hours of origami folding to get the cranes done, and that didn’t even account for stringing them.

Seriously.  It's a lot of cranes.

I needn’t have worried though.  Of all the events we’ve had on campus, folding cranes was our best received and best attended by far.  We ended up actually finishing early, so on the last day we wrote up messages of love and hope in Japanese that students could copy and write on the wings of the cranes.

The Japanese reads: "God loves Japan!"

After stringing the cranes in strands of forty, we bundled them up in a sizable box and airmailed them off to Cru in Tokyo.  

Me with some cranes.  Fly away home, little ones!

While I was happy to see so many students that wanted to show their care and support for Japan, I overheard one unpleasant sentiment on campus  that I did not expect.  On our last day I heard a couple students discussing our crane table, and they thought the whole idea was a waste of time.  How could sending paper birds overseas actually help these people?

After cooling off from my frustration a little, I realized the question was legitimate, but also that these students had come to the wrong conclusion.  Of course I do not advocate sending cranes as a substitute for financial and physical support for the survivors.  Cranes can’t fill a stomach or rebuild homes.  But that doesn’t make them useless.

I know this because of my experience with one of the Japanese international students who came to our table that week.  Her presence alone made the entire week worth it.  She ran up to our table and fervently thanked us over and over for remembering her country and her people.  It meant so much to her that we would take the time and energy to show the Japanese that we still loved them and we still cared about them.  She came back every day to fold cranes, and every day she thanked us again and again.  She even brought money to us to help us pay to ship the cranes to Japan.

Yes, Japan needs food and Japan needs resources right now.  But on top of that, the Japanese survivors need love and comfort.  They have suffered a great loss, and they need emotional support in addition to the resources to rebuild.  To fight the emotional despair, they need someone to care for their hearts.  Our cranes are a significant way of communicating love to the Japanese people. 

My thanks to all the students who participated in the crane folding event, and all of you who are continuing to support Japan as the country works towards recovery.

All done!  1,000 cranes!

Warning those who like to fidget and fiddle (like me): If you fold cranes for hours every day for a week, long after you have any necessity to fold origami you will have an obsessive urge to fold cranes, and you will have to buy origami paper to satisfy your need to fold things.

Recap Blog 4: Valentine's Day on STINT

Honestly, I was not expecting Valentine's Day on STINT to be that much different from Valentine’s Day back at home.  It just so happens that I’ve never been in a relationship on any 14^th of February, so the day tends to pass without much fanfare.  Sometimes I feel like I’m gritting my teeth through the bevy of roses and chocolates, but most years I just ignore it and wish people a Happy Arizona’s birthday.  (For those of you non-Arizonans out there, my dear state turned 100 this February 14^th!  I’m so proud!)

But love and relationships are a big deal for college students, and when you’re working for a college ministry Valentine’s Day isn’t something you can just ignore.  So we set out to plan a Girl’s Valentine’s Day party (on Feb 13^th of course—Feb 14^th is for dates) where we could strengthen our friendship with some of the girls we knew and hopefully get a chance to share the gospel.  Thus we came up with the theme: “What is Love?”  We had a cookie decorating station, snacks, and we decorated the house with hearts and streamers (which remain hung up in our living room to this day).  Our most theme-oriented activity was the painting station, where you could paint your answer to the question: “What is Love?” 

Postcards answering the question: "What is Love?"

In retrospect, I’m not entirely sure what we expected to get from this painting activity and how we planned to transition into conversations about the way Jesus loves us.  I think the hope was that our students would draw something abstract, and then we could ask them to explain it to us and why that represented love to them.  Mostly our students just drew hearts, though, and it doesn’t make any sense to ask why a heart represents love.  While it didn’t accomplish quite what we wanted it to, in the end it did give us a pretty collage to put on our wall. 

Marriage vows, the resurrection and hearts.

While I don’t think it accomplished what we planned to, the Valentine’s Day party did start some relational foundation work that was important for us to build for the future.  We got to have our friends over to our home for the first time.  We spent an evening making something together, and doing something unique.  The girls who came enjoyed the evening, and some of the girls who came are still connected to our ministry a few months later.

After celebrating with students on the 13^th, on Valentine’s Day itself we celebrated as a team.  We all dressed up and the men hosted dinner at their apartment, cooking up French onion soup, salad, lasagna, garlic bread, and cookies for dessert.  As a special treat, they took some time before the meal to tell each one of the ladies what they had appreciated about us this year.  Yeah, we’ve got some sweet guys on our team.

While I wasn’t able to avoid the Valentine’s Day hulabaloo this year, it was at least nice to be able to participate in some way in the celebration.

The collage made by us and our students.  Gold star if you can pick out mine.