There are as many self-help books out there as there are stars in the sky.There's somebody who’s ready to tell you, for a price, how you can boost your energy or productivity by 150% and keep it there. All you have to do is change to a posititve way of thinking, follow whatever regimen they prescribe with the end result being that you’ll be happy all the time. You can pay good money to attend seminars where some slick dude gets you all lathered up and you leave the place thinking you can rule the world.

For awhile.

When reality sets in, you find yourself no longer in that room with like-minded people for support, and the next thing you know, you’re back to being down again and feeling even worse because you spent all that money and didn’t learn a thing. Just a failure at life...again.

On the positive side, these guys, once in awhile, do throw some things our way that are helpful in demonstrating our human nature. If we could pay attention to them, we might have some insight into accepting the roller coaster of energy and emotion we find ourselves riding.

You’ve probably tried this once.

I have.

It’s a physical demonstration of what faith is about.

I am blindfolded and told to stretch out my arms and fall backward. Before I am blindfolded, I see there is someone standing behind me and I am again told that this person will catch me.

I am reassured again and again as the blindfold is put in place.

I will not fall to the floor.

The person behind me will catch me.

I know there is somebody behind me.

I'll just fall backwards and be caught by the person behind me.

You know what's next. 

I lean back and start to fall, my arms come down and I squat instinctively to break the fall I know is sure to take place.  I want to minimize the distance between my head and the floor even though I know there’s someone right behind me to catch me.  After a dozen or so attempts, though, something clicks. I finally give up, let myself go and fall backwards into the waiting arms of the person behind me.

The whole process; the starts, the stops, the hands and butt down to break the fall, is the key to learning about faith.  Though it is given to us as a gift by God, we've still got some learning to do.

The practice of faith and the trust comes through the constant exercise of giving up control.

Jesus tells us flat out,

"Little children, it is the Father's wish that you receive the kingdom".

Abraham, he says, was accorded righteousness by God, not because he followed a certain set of rules and regulations, but by his faith when he said "Yes!" to God’s promise that if he packed up all his family and belongings and left the place of comfort he called home and set out for who knows where, God would make him the Father of Nations. He didn’t have a clue how it would happen or where he was going. Only the promise of God that all would be well.

Jesus tells a parable about slaves waiting for their master to return home from a wedding feast. They were expected to stay awake so they wouldn’t miss him when he returned.

In those days, a wedding feast could go on for a very long time; twenty-four hours a day until the wine ran out. Nobody knew the day or the time when the master would return to the house. So the slaves were enjoined to stay awake and be alert so when the master did return, they would be ready to serve him. Read,

"You gotta stay ready, because you just don't know when Jesus is coming".

I was pretty young when I first heard this parable. I thought,

"Well, gee, I gotta stay awake all the time. How am I gonna do this? If Jesus comes and I'm asleep, man, I'm cooked!"

There are any number of people who will tell you by nature of this passage that you have got to keep doing, following the rules and regulations, and you just can not slip, because the one minute you set the book down, or you set the rules down, Jesus will come and he will find you unprepared.

"Are you truly saved?"

"But, dammit, I want to sleep sometime!"

There are days.

There are days when I wonder.

"Why bother?".

What's it all about? Those dark nights of the soul we go through where there aren’t any more sky rockets or mountain top experiences or even the warm fuzzies we get when we are sure that we're a child of God.

Hell, in times like that we’re not so sure we're even a child of our mother and father.

We have those kinds of days. We’re supposed to.

My Church History professor and advisor in seminary was, and is, a very dear friend. When I have my moments and wonder what I’m about, I’ll usually call him up and dump on him.

He always has the same thing to say.

"Life not about constantly being vigilant and looking for Jesus to come."

In those times when nothing seems to work, when we are in that dark night and our faith is shaky or non-recognizable -those are the times when we must simply muddle through as best we can and keep turning the crank.

Say the prayer, if that’s what you do, even though it doesn't seem worth the effort.

Meditate, if that’s what you do, even though you just don't feel like it.

Visit the sick, if that’s what you do, even though you think you’ve got better things to do.

Just keep turning the crank.

Muddle through.

That's exercising our faith.

When nothing seems to be working, we continue to work at it.

Go ahead.  Fall backwards.

Put your hands down.

Squat.

But keep trying to fall backward with your arms extended.

The person behind you will catch you.

If we just stopped and stood there we would wither on the vine.

So we must muddle.

In those times when our souls are dark and hollow and we are not too sure we are still connected to God, we do what we can do: muddle.

The mountain top experience will return, as long as we don't go looking for it and expecting it to happen.

Those rocket ships and fireworks do come back.

Those warm fuzzies will be warm and fuzzy again.

That person behind you will catch you.

That's what faith is about: The ebb and flow of the experience. We have our ups and our downs. We’re human. We get slammed with some really wild shit and it just knocks us out.

And yet, Jesus tells us,

"It is God's pleasure that you inherit the kingdom."

You don't have to be perfect all the time, you don't have to be doing it right all the time.

Lean back.

Those of us high energy, type-A personalities who have got to get so many things done don’t like to think about muddling as something to revel in.

In muddling, there is a brief time to go through the motions not worrying about doing enough or getting enough. We are exercising until we find ourselves once again climbing the mountain, find ourselves once again feeling and hearing our hearts sing, being open to God so that we, again, sing and dance for joy.

Muddle!

Your Give-a-Shit will fix itself.