One of my favorite movie examples of a leap of faith is from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. Indiana is standing on a small ledge and is looking across a deep chasm at a door on the other side. There is no visible bridge to be seen, but the small journal he's kept on all the trials he'd be facing on his quest for the Holy Grail tells him that he should be able to walk, seemingly on nothing at all, across to the door. He just needs the faith to take that first step. After a few moments of debate, he finally just closes his eyes, puts a foot out and steps. What he finds under his foot is a bridge, painted to blend perfectly with the opposite cliff face, thereby giving the appearance that there is nothing there.
This is how we as Christians should live our life, willing to take a step when it looks like nothing is there because God is with us and won't let us falter. Hebrews 11 recounts numerous times in the history of the Israelites where someone was asked to do something crazy, like provide shelter for two enemy insurgents while they gather details about your city or go to battle with nothing but a sling and some rocks to face a giant warrior. The best example of faith that can be found though, in my opinion, is Abraham and Issac.
Abraham was old when God spoke to him and said he was going to have a child. His wife was considered barren and, as if God had forgotten, Abraham reminded him of that fact. God told him it would happen though, and that through his offspring the world would be blessed and multiply to fill the Earth. God provided as He said with Isaac. God spoke again later and told Abraham to go make a sacrifice, using his son Isaac as the offering. Though God had promised to make his offspring numerous, now He was asking for Isaac's life? Abraham had to have been confused and heart-broken, but he planned on doing it. He walked up to the location, built the altar, and just before he was going to kill Isaac, an angel stopped him and God provided a ram instead. Abraham had enough faith in God that he was willing to kill his son because he knew God would do something(Genesis 22:1-19 NIV).
How many of us could claim that kind of faith? Lots of people say that they trust in God, but sometimes we get hung up on the seemingly impossible details, the smallest stuff that we think God might forget, so we worry or say no. It's really easy to say that if someone threatened our life for being Christians, we would still claim Christ and have faith in our deliverance, but then we get hung up on tithing because we feel like God isn't able to provide for our financial needs. Or we say we'll follow Him to another country and yet we don't have enough faith in Him to pray for our sickness to be healed.
The first verse in Hebrews defines faith as confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see(NIV). I interpret that as more than knowledge or trust in God, it's assurance that no matter where we are or what we're doing, God will provide even if we can't see how. It's knowing that even though you can't see the way to the other side of the chasm, you believe in the word of God(our journal) that says you can walk there, close your eyes and put your foot out, whether there's a bridge there or not.
