Hebrews
11:1-3, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance
about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By
faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so
that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
A
cool thing about being a cop is meeting people that I would otherwise never
encounter. I am not talking about "famous" people, I mean the support people who
surround them. These are the individuals that make things happen and it’s
interesting to hear their stories. A few weeks ago, I coordinated security
for a high ranking member of the current administration. This leader was the
keynote speaker at a national conference held in my city and members of the police department were assigned to the perimeter of the venue. After things got settled and the
keynote address began, I walked through the building to check on the officers to see how they were doing.
Moving
through the reception area, I spotted a stocky, young man standing off to the
side with a bag slung over his shoulder. He was dressed in a suit and
unobtrusively watched the latecomers milling around the area. I walked over and
introduced myself and asked what his role was at the conference. He said that
he was the guy with the phone responsible to get to “the boss” any time
it rang. There really is a Bat Phone! He was the ASAP-RT person. As Soon As Possible – Right Now, 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week. It didn’t matter what was going on, the location
or the time of day; this dude’s job was to interrupt "the boss" and hand him the
telephone. It is fast paced job with lots of travel. We were killing time as the
speech went on and I asked him to tell me one of his most memorable stories. It
was a great lesson about faith.
On
one particular July 4th, his team was working in Cape Cod when a call came from a supervisor asking how long it would take to pack up,
travel to Boston and set up communications at a downtown hotel. Cape Cod is 90
miles away from Boston and considering it was a July 4th Saturday,
driving time alone would take over 2 ½ hours not including tearing down and packing;
unpacking, set up and testing. He told the supervisor it would take at least five hours.
The supervisor said he had three.
“Impossible.”
“Well
you guys are the only ones available so get moving.”
The
call ended.
Needless
to say the mad scramble began. Equipment got torn down and piled in the back of
a vehicle; the Saturday afternoon, July 4th drive to Boston began. Traffic was a mess and
the only way to meet the three hour deadline was to drive on shoulders, through
grass causeways and to snake along break down lanes. One member of the team was busy securing
equipment in the back of the unmarked van with another calling ahead to the
various police departments to let them know a “reckless” driver was barrelling though
their jurisdiction. They got a police escort only after they reached the Boston
city limits.
As the team pulled in front of the hotel, the person they were tasked to provide Bat
Phone communications for pulled in right behind them. This was not a drill. My friend described how they were lifting tables and equipment through a second
floor window to save time. Computers were booted up, cables were connected, phones plugged in and secure wireless
links established; it all came together in record time. Only one critical task was
left. Set up a satellite dish on the roof of the hotel. One problem: a lighting
storm was rolling through the area and no one could find the stand for the
dish. Someone would have to get up on the roof and hold the dish until the stand
was found. They drew straws; guess who pulled the short one? Up the stairs my friend went
and stood out on the roof of the hotel holding a satellite dish in the middle of a lightning storm.
“I
don’t care who you are, you will
believe in God when you do that!”
The
good news is that believing in God is not predicated on pulling the short straw
and becoming a human lighting rod. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “It is by grace you
are saved through faith and it is not of yourselves, it is a gift from God – not by works so that no one can boast.” Jesus said in Matthew 17 that all we
need is faith the size of a mustard seed and we can move mountains. I will take
sowing a small seed of faith over discovering God that exists by holding a big
circle made of metal in the middle of a lightning storm!
