Love and Faith

I remember a conversation I had with a 93 yr-old resident from where I used to work about a bike that was left abandoned outside their building. "Look at that bike, it was left in perfect condition months ago by its owner. I wonder what happened to him, I hope he's fine. But look at that bike, some people started to steal its parts, maybe, after they noticed that it was abandoned. Now, all that is left is its tarnished skeleton. Some of the residents here were left in perfect condition by their children but now they're just like a tarnished skeleton."

I don't know why but I just thought of that conversation that I had with him 2 years ago out of nowhere while I was walking in Manhattan. Then another conversation I had with some friends followed up...

Have you seen an abandoned building or a house? After leaving a place for years, some branches of some trees will go through the its walls, slowly tearing it down until it will collapse.

I reflected on that thought. Maybe God is telling me that no matter how "strong" I describe my faith, no matter how good I think my relationship is with Him if I will abandon it thinking that I can just leave it there and put our relationship on a pause, it will eventually weaken like a wall, deteriorate like a body, atrophy like muscle that's not been used or tarnish like the abandoned bike.

Love is a verb.

"Our love must not be a thing of words and fine talk.

It must be a thing of action and sincerity." 1 John 3:18

Faith is work. I'm not talking about the endless faith vs. works argument but what I mean is that we have to work on our faith in order for us to overcome all the elements that might taint it. Maybe that's what it means by "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" James 2:17. Faith will eventually die without works.

Let's all continue to pray for strength to persevere to win the race of faith. Let's not stop running.