Two Kinds of Christians

 When I was young, I struggled to understand the stories about the giant characters of the Old Testament.They were different, unique. It seemed to me that they were super strong, faith like a rock, able to – I don’t know – leap tall buildings, bulletproof, wiser than people in the world today. The Bible didn’t seem to talk much about their fears or failures so I assumed they were almost a different species, whereas I spent much of my time fearing, doubting and never really trying to live up to their standards. I wasn’t like them. I didn’t even know anyone like them. Different species.

Job and King David were exceptions; they both seemed to whine a lot about their fate, and yet they were both men after God’s heart. Why? And why did such detailed account of their misery appear in God’s word? Long after it should have been obvious to me, I realized that while in deepest trouble, they still trusted God for answers.

When I mentally put myself in their sandals, I began to see their long waits for His promises to materialize, the loneliness, desperation of Abraham trudging up the mountain with his son Isaac, wondering whether God had changed His mind about Isaac’s future. I saw Job refusing to listen to his friends telling him to curse God and die to be rid of his pain, Noah spending years building an ark in a dry land while his neighbors jeered, Joseph sold into slavery by his jealous brothers before being vindicated decades later when God’s plan was fulfilled, Moses waiting, exiled (for murder of an Egyptian guard) for decades before God revealed His great task.

I began to experience the thoughts and fears these men must have felt through the long periods when God was silent. And yet, they still listened for His voice, relieved and ready when it came. I felt Abraham’s and Sarah’s doubt and sorrow when God delayed in sending the promised child of her old age. And I saw major flaws in the life of King David, years after being anointed as the next King, moving from a hillside dotted with sheep to the King’s palace via the battlefield where he slew Goliath. Surely he had ample history with God to remain faithful in all things, yet he took the wife of a faithful servant and sent him to the battlefield to be murdered. It takes my breath away that David could stray so far after the sweet times he had spent with the Lord. Yet I know I stray daily in so many ways.

These leaders, examples of faith, lived in a dangerous world, filled with every sin that we see around us today—the devil hasn’t invented any new ones. They experienced fears, doubts, temptations as we do, but God’s word tells us He honors a repentant heart, always keeps His promises and teaches us daily how to maintain a right relationship with Him. He is ready to do for each of us what He did for them, if we honor Him as they did. I now see truth is this: there are in fact two kinds of Christians. Not strong or weak, but obedient and faithful, or rebellious and selfish. Some days I’m the first kind; other days the second. Maybe the big difference is in patience, learning to take long view. God does.