At a youth conference that Anna Carter Florence attended a few years ago, the musician David Bailey played for one of the worship services. Florence, the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, says, “He was a singer-songwriter who spent fourteen years in a fierce battle with cancer and wrote about it: what it was like to be a twentysomething person of faith, married with two children, and quite possibly dying…David told us…that when he was first diagnosed, he used to wake up in the morning thinking, ‘Why me?’ But then one day he woke up and said, ‘Okay, God: what now?’ And it changed his life.” In today’s passage from Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, we are reminded that Abraham was a “What now?” kind of guy. Florence says of Abraham, “That’s real faith…Seeing God’s promises from a distance, and not breaking camp. Living like a stranger on this earth and dreaming from inside your tent.” Listen as Florence explains how we can become “What now?” people too.
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