The other day, Karen and I were running on a trail just up the Ohio Creek Valley from Gunnison. Along the trail, there were dozens of places where people had carved their names, initials, or a date, into the bark of the aspen trees. Over time, the tree will build a black “scab” around the carving, which will contrast sharply with the tree’s white bark. Lots of people seem to like doing this, and it is common to find names that were carved into a tree 30 or 40 years ago. (By the way, as good a spiritual analogy as this makes, carving your name in a tree leaves an ugly mark. The tree looks better without it – just my opinion.) We see this all the time, but on this particular day, these carvings kept drawing my attention. I could tell that the Lord was trying to show me something, so I started to pay attention and listen for what He might say. At one point, these words bubbled up out of my spirit, “Faith leaves a mark,” immediately followed by Hebrews 11:1, 2 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”
God commended our predecessors in the faith, not just for having an occasional experience of faith, but for persevering in faith–maintaining their faith in God over the course of their lives. Hebrews 11:13 goes on to say, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.” I think this is a very important principle for us to understand. While the exercise of our personal faith toward God certainly does enable us to receive a great measure of God’s promised provision, our faith is also important to future generations. Believers living in this generation, are by faith pulling on the things that God has planned for future generations. Even if we don’t see the full completion of things we are believing for in our lifetime, the very fact that we are believing for them is drawing them closer and closer to manifestation in this earth. This is just another example of the foundational truth that our Christian life is never just about us. As we continued on our run/hike, I believe that the Lord was showing me that our faith leaves a mark in at least three ways.
First, faith leaves a mark on us. The Bible tells us in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing the personal and spoken word of God. Faith is not something that we work up, or that originates in us. It is imparted to our human spirit by the Holy Spirit through God’s personal communication with us. That interaction with God always marks us forever. We are never the same after we hear Him speak. We may have a new outlook, sometimes fears are eliminated, sometimes our entire course in life is changed, sometimes we just have enough renewed strength to get through the day, but we are never the same. Each intimate interaction with the Holy Spirit builds something upon the foundation of our past interactions with Him. Each time I stand in faith through to the end of something, each time I see God’s faithfulness to fulfill His Word in my life, I am marked with a confidence that the storms of life can’t erase.
Secondly, our faith leaves a mark on those closest to us. The people of Hebrews 11 did not view their faith as something private–something to keep to themselves and not “impose” on anyone else. On the contrary, they lived their lives openly according to their faith, and they unashamedly imparted that faith to their children and grandchildren. When Christians are not just living a religion, but actually living from the impartations of faith that come from time with the living God, people can sense it. Genuine living faith does not need to boisterously prove its existence. It is a rock-solid foundation that upholds the truth with quiet confidence. Is faith sometimes noisy? You bet! But the noise is one of expectant jubilation in God and His greatness. The noise might be one of war against God’s enemies and the victory celebration that follows, but it is not the noise of proving one’s point by shouting the loudest. In quietness and confidence is your strength. Make no mistake about it, when we live by genuine faith, our friends, neighbors, and the toughest sell of all, our families, will recognize the powerful reality of our faith, and of the God in whom we trust.
And finally, our faith leaves a mark on future generations. The whole point of Hebrews 11 really comes out in Hebrews 12. We are told to be aware of a great multitude of witnesses that have gone before us in the life of faith. Witnesses are not just those who sit in the stands and watch, they are people whose lives bear witness to the truth. They are people who stood in faith and left a mark on their generation that still inspires us today.
People that walked along the same path that we are walking today made the marks that we see in those aspen groves. They took the time to stop and make a deep imprint in the bark of those trees that still speaks of their presence. When we walk by, we see their name, or the date that they were there. Our lives have intersected in a shared experience of these woods. In the same way, when I hear of the faith of prior generations of believers, I know that I am a part of something much larger than myself. I am part of a long line of people who have walked this earth with their ears and eyes focused on God. Our lives are richer, and our way is clearer, because those who went before us left their mark of faith.
