What Change Would Faith Require?

“Our business is to get [humans] away from the eternal and from the Present...It is far better to make them live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear..."

The Screwtape Letters

Not long ago God used these words by C. S. Lewis to change my life. The passage is from The Screwtape Letters, which presents the dark side of spiritual warfare in a series of letters from a high-ranking demon advising a novice demon on his human “patient.”

I was reading The Screwtape Letters on a business flight to Cincinnati at a time when I personally was struggling with my role at work. In the months since our new business strategy, and for the first time in my career, I found myself increasingly ineffective. Simultaneously, I was feeling vague stirrings of a new passion to minister to others through my vocation.

At times God calls me to be content in Him, no matter the situation. Other times He calls me to abandon my comfort zone for something new. Was it that I lacked the faith to stay at work and be content? Or did I not have enough faith to go?

On the flight to Cincinnati, I mentally paraphrased the fictional demon’s counsel to my own situation: “The present is the one point in time that intersects eternity—and God. Whatever you do, preoccupy your human with the future. Whether he thinks it will be heaven on earth or hell on earth, just distract him from the present.”

Then I saw it: the only reason I remained at my job was for fear of losing a paycheck. After talking and praying together for several days, my wife and I determined it was time for me to resign. And one month ago, I left. And, yes, I still feel fear. But God already has brought me work that fills my sense of my calling, even if it doesn’t guarantee a comfortable income.

The future still holds concerns: will I have enough money? Be happy? Be loved? At times God calls me to be content in Him, no matter the situation. Other times He calls me to abandon my comfort zone for something new. Both staying and leaving can be acts of faith and require personal change. The key is to look for God not in the future, but in the present. He will lead us from there.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matt. 6:34