Boy, am I dense. I must be, or I wouldn’t keep getting the same few lessons over and over again. This fall, I’ve been studying James with a group of wonderful women. God has a habit of using my personal life to show me how I need to apply Scripture, and this season has been no different. If I were to pick a theme for the last few months, it would be two sides of faith: the waiting faith and the acting faith.

In many areas, God has me in a holding pattern.  I am waiting on answers to some annoying health issues which are, most likely, not serious. As a member of the news media, I’ve had to endure changes, cutbacks, and even more cynicism than usual. On the home front, I’ve been planning some improvements, but the timing isn’t quite right.  I need to wait a while longer. The recent election results look to me like more opportunities for persevering under trials.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” – James 1:2-4

I thought about calling this post, “The Waiting Game.” According to freedictionary.com, the definition is “the postponement of action or decision to gain the advantage.” Sometimes endurance means waiting and other times endurance means training. It’s more like the game, “Red light, green light.” In a lot of areas, God is telling me to stop and be patient, and elsewhere He is prodding me forward.

As a runner, I’m familiar with the concept of building up endurance over time. Periods of rest allow your body to heal, especially as you get older (yes, I’m now an older runner). If I go too far too fast, I risk injury. But I can’t rest too long either, or my endurance will begin to slip. Experience has taught me that if I don’t run for a week, it may take me two weeks to get back to that level of fitness.

This fall, I’ve had the joy of watching Rebekah in her senior season of cross country and Anna in her very first season as a runner. For Rebekah, years of training allowed her to secure a spot on varsity and maintain it. She worked hard to bring her times down and met that goal. Anna learned that there are no shortcuts to being a good runner. It takes both action and patience, but I hope she also discovered the benefits of persevering and the camaraderie of the team.

So that brings me to the other side of faith, faith in action. Here again, James got into my business. Most days I write a prayer journal, and I usually start with a Bible verse that has leaped out at me. At least four different times in the last two months, I recorded the same verse: “But those who look intently into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act — they will be blessed in their doing.” – James 1:25. Another verse popped up in several entries, and it’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer: “Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.” – James 4:17.

While I am waiting on God in some trials, He is calling me to action elsewhere. I shouldn’t have been surprised by this message. James is, after all, “Mr. Faith-without-deeds-is-dead.” But what does that mean to me today? In the second chapter, James criticizes believers who wish others well but do nothing to help those in need. How many times is it

in my power to help, and I don’t? On my own, I tend towards stinginess. Like those birds in Finding Nemo, “mine, mine, mine.” But God calls me to care for others in tangible ways by giving of my money and time.

As a Christian, I want to have a lot of Bible knowledge, but knowledge is not an end in and of itself. It shows us the way to go. Am I going God’s way? I tried to look at the various areas in my life and felt rather overwhelmed. I want to write in a way that encourages others to follow my Father. I long to be a godly wife and mother, so I look for ways to bless them and to train my girls in the way they should go. I want to serve where the Lord would have me in my church. As a member of the media and the wider community, I want to be Christ’s ambassador. People I see every day need a hope that never fails.

I have a lot more green lights than red, and my head starts to spin. But here again James has a tip for me: “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” – James 1:5

God, in His wisdom, only gave me 24 hours in a day. How about you? If God is first, sometimes He wants us to stop and reflect. There are times when He puts up the red light in unexpected or unwanted ways to get us to slow down. Other times He wants us to go. He wants us to pull out our wallets or get on a plane or say what needs to be said. The only way we know when to stay and when to go is by “looking intently into the perfect law that gives freedom” and by prayer (that’s in the fifth chapter).

I guess it’s like being a farmer. I grew up a city girl but have had the joy of marrying a farm boy, so I’ve learned a thing or two. Much of the time, you have to act. Till the ground, plant the seeds, harvest the crop. Other times you wait. Wait for the rain. Wait until the fields dry after the rain so the tractor won’t get stuck. Wait for the harvest season. I look to God for wisdom on when to stop and when to go. “Draw near to the Lord, and He will draw near to you.” – James 4:8a