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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Sit On Your Hands (A Lesson in Faith)


For the past three years of my life, I have poured many hours into a novel (Unadequate). As of today I have mere days to raise the remaining funds of my pre-order campaign. While there are many names I could call, emails I could send, and things still to be done; in the early morning hours of my blackend apartment I hear that familiar voice demand of me:

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

(The following is the dialogue which then transpired between myself and the universe at 4:44am. It should also be known that I am not a morning person and enjoy always the deepest of sleep.)


ME: You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me.
GOD: No.
ME: Now?
GOD: That’s right. After 3 years of working and doing, I want you to sit on your hands for 3 days.
ME: I think I’m going to be sick…
GOD: How can the works of your hands produce a greater faith in me? I tell you they cannot. Far be it from the hands of humans to perform the miracles they so wish to interfere with their circumstance. It is not hands, but faith and faith alone that produces the power of God. Are not my ways better? Are not my resources infinite? Are not my hands stronger? I am the great I am in whom and through whom all things are possible. Not by your hands but my will be done.
Will by definition is the power by which all things succeed. For what is impossible with man will be possible with God.

How can you credit to faith what you have done by your own works? No! I say unto thee:

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

Sit and so manifest the powers of heaven by faith. Faith—which is the evidence of all your hopes yet unattained. How can you trust what you still daily see? How can I move when you work continuously? No! I say unto thee:

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

You look for these signs with your eyes, but I say look no more—for I am in the unseen. What is faith if it is not called to walk out upon the waters? If it is not led through the darkness where all is unseen and yet still is? Faith exists not in the sight of man, but in his heart an in his soul. So I say unto you:

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

I work in instants and you labor in years. But the lifetime of man is not measured by how many or how frequent the harvest; but by the beauty of his field as tended by the famer of his faith. See, the seeds planted do not grow by the earth but from it. The miracles of the universe come not by man but by the universe itself when man learns he must…

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

The future of this book, as with all things, lies not with your hands and I ask you to sit on them so that I may bring forth every promise, grow every seed, and manifest every unseen vision by your faith—not your hands. It is not only for your sake that I do this but so that others may see by your faith (not your hands) the work of a God in which they no longer have belief, trust, or faith.

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

Lift not a finger to tweet, to update a status, or promote. Then watch as I show you what I have already begun, am always doing, and will finish. Think not that you are testing me, but rather I am testing you while you…

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

If three days can raise a dead man and restore him to life, then in three days can I produce the miracle you so desire. Look no more to your hands, and see the evidence of your faith in me. Doubt not the power of your God with the works of your hand or the generosity of your fellow man, and believe I will give all things unto you when you... 

SIT ON YOUR HANDS

Sit in darkness as you blackout the sight, tie up the hands in prayer, and contain the eagerness to perform works of your flesh. Then I will show myself more powerful, more abundant, and more omnipresent.

ME: In the silent dark before sunrise, and for every day to come, I will be found sitting on my hands. Watching not for the dollar signs, not for the copies sold, but for the power of He who does all things. Bearing witness to the awesomeness of God as only man can when he sits on his hands.
GOD: Anything else?
ME: Yes.
GOD: What?
ME: I love you.
GOD: I love you too.