Bigger than your personality

If sometimes I come across as a such a wimp in the stories I share, 
it’s because I am. Oh, well. Here we go again... 

Last week I knew the good thing to do. Make the visit. It wasn’t the necessary thing. Or even the expected thing. But it would be the good thing.

I planned on it all day. After supper, we’d visit a friend and peer recovering from surgery in the hospital (an easy thing—no courage required), and then we’d visit the family of a very sick, possibly dying, elderly man (not so easy thing).

But the closer it got, the more I wanted to back out. At heart, I’m lazy. Selfish. And introverted.

Visiting people that I don’t really know doesn’t come easily. Sure, I knew all the sick man’s children well. No problem there. But what if they weren’t there? What if we didn’t know anybody there?
What if…what if…what if…?

That’s my personality—“What if?”

But that’s not my faith.
My faith says, “Go. God is with you.”

So I went. (With Jeff, mind you. He’s no introvert.)

We made the first visit easily. And walked into the ICU waiting room for the second visit. Sure enough, the kids we knew had all left. All we saw was their mother, eyes closed, resting in a recliner. What to do? What to do?

We spoke to her. And, oh my, were we ever rewarded for it. She was tired, she was concerned, but she was also faith-filled and peaceful and it spilled over onto us. We were probably more encouraged by the visit than she was.

Isn’t that just like God? He blesses our fumbling personalities when we take the risk to step outside them.

Without faith, my personality is fearful.
With faith, my personality is, well, a little less fearful (He’s still at work).

In the transition, He helps me do things afraid anyway. 

As Jeff and I walked away from the visit, we talked about how glad we were we came. But being true to character, I also had to cry. I knew the sick lingo from the visit all too well—DNR, oxygen levels, particular meds—from my parents’ recent deaths. I was sad. But that was okay. Being sad hadn’t prevented the visit. Nor had being afraid.

And I knew that wasn’t to my credit. It was to God’s.

Because that’s what faith can do.

God is bigger than my “what if’s.”
He’s bigger than my introversion.

Because God is bigger than my personality.

* * *

How does your faith affect your personality?