“Our faith isn’t all the things we say we believe; it’s what we do next.”
~ Bob Goff, Live in Grace, Walk in Love

That. 😉 I feel like I could just leave you with that quote–shortest blog post ever, LOL. Because really, it says it so well, doesn’t it? It harkens to that “walk the walk” adage. It appeals to James’s “I’ll show you my faith by my works” line. It sums up pretty much all the commentary on living out what we believe, day by day and step by step.

I read this in Goff’s devotional several weeks ago, and it’s stuck with me. And as usual, it’s combined with other things I’ve been reading or otherwise coming across. The idea of loving our neighbors, truly loving them. The idea of loving our enemies. Of loving the sinner. It’s about what happens in our lives and in our hearts when the rubber meets the road.

In Dream Big (also by Bob Goff), one of the questions in the study section issues this challenge: Take your average Tuesday. List the things you do during that day.

How does it declare your faith?

Why is this profound? Because our lives aren’t lived in the big moments. Our faith isn’t proven only in a crisis or a victory. Our witness doesn’t rely on how we act at special events. It’s the everyday, the now, that really determines who we are and how we love God. So what’s in your Tuesday, or your Monday, or your Thursday afternoon? How does it shine His light into the darkness? What are you going to do in the next 30 minutes? The next hour? The next four? How does that intersect with your faith in the one true God and the Son who gave His life for you?

I think all too often we just mark time–we’re standing there, marching in place, waiting for the boring everyday stuff to be done so that we can get to what we really want to do. The weekend. The summer vacation. That big holiday. The mission trip. There’s nothing wrong with looking forward to any of those things, obviously…but they’re not what life is made of, are they? Life is more than the big moments. It’s ALL the moments in between. Our characters, our hearts, aren’t just definied by those big days, but rather by all the “meantime.”

The challenge that Goff issues, and which I’ve long tried to live out as well, is to live EACH day as if it’s the one you’ve been waiting for. Each normal, ordinary day is a chance to give glory to Him. It’s a chance to choose what we’re going to do next. It’s a chance not just to talk about our faith, but to walk in it. It’s a chance to chase our dreams. It’s a chance to mend a bridge. It’s a chance to try something new.

Make a call. Send an email. Write a letter. Bake cookies for those neighbors you’ve never met. Go out of your way to give lunch to the homeless man on the corner. Write that story you’ve been meaning to get started on. Or hey, just write down that epiphany from the other day in a journal. Do something nice for your most annoying coworker. Give away something to someone who knows how much it means to you, to prove to them that they mean more. Take the first step toward that off-the-wall, crazy dream that won’t leave you alone.

Do something. Do something today to be more like Christ. Do something today to give feet to the words we say so easily. Do something to make today special.

Don’t just say you believe in Jesus. Prove it. Prove it today.