Faith to Feet, I call it.
The visiting pastor's message was captivating.The man was completely at ease behind the podium. He spoke distinctly. Authoritatively. He simply knew his stuff.
I could tell this was not his first rodeo.
And then, a slip of the tongue.
I didn't blink much at it because, as a speaker, I've had enough slips of the tongue to last a lifetime. Most of them embarrassing. And, I've learned, that the best way to handle these moments is to just "go with it." Make a joke and move on.
This slip was not joke-worthy, however. This slip was ponderable. (Which is not a real word, but think about it, will you?)
The pastor meant to say "face-to-face," but what he said instead was, "faith-to-face."
As a speaker, I could tell he'd caught his own tongue-slip, but rather than correct himself, he simply went on. I, on the other hand, wrote the phrase down on the cover of my bulletin.
Faith-to-Face.
What does that mean, I asked myself. What does "faith-to-face" look like?
Then I realized that "faith-to-face" is seeing, face-to-face, faith in action. Which is what our young people, along with our pastor and a few select adults, were doing in Haiti. Faith-to-face is what we see every time we witness someone praying fervently. Believing. Though they do not yet hold the evidence of the belief.
Faith, as someone said to me recently, is believing that God still knows the recipe for manna.
What faith-to-face actions have you encountered? Perhaps just today? Or this week? Or this month?
Better yet, what faith-to-face moments have you been to others?
Think about that ...
Happy Thanksgiving!
Eva Marie
With one slip of the toughs a new phrase is coined.
ReplyDeleteMy late father-in-love's worse slip that he remembered was when he said Jonah was swallowed up in the whale of a belly.