Fruitful Contemplations: Faithfulness

These are jambu fruit, which in Asia are called rose apples, wax apples, water apples and a variety of other names. Plant name syzygium samarangense. In the tropical fruit family I'd say that they symbolize faithfulness, because our backyard jambu tree was always faithful in producing these fruit, whether we valued them or not.

But the fruit of the Spirit is...faithfulness. Gal 5:22

Stories of faithfulness have always drawn me. In my childhood there was the poignant story of Greyfriars Bobby, the terrier who guarded his deceased owner's grave for 14 years, until his own death. Since then I've been inspired by others.  There's the story of Mother Theresa, serving the poor of Calcutta despite her own depression and doubts about God. Then there are stories of lesser-known saints, saints I've known in my life. Miss Hale was a Baptist missionary in China until that country closed to her, after which she provided a home for outcast women in northern Malaysia at a place she called "Bethel Hill."  And there are several theologians connected to my school who have remained faithful to God despite tragically losing their young daughters, one to murder by a stranger, one to accidental drowning, and one to pancreatic cancer.

The common thread in all of these stories of faithfulness seems to be devotion despite hardship. With the exception of Greyfriars Bobby, all of these individuals determined to follow their moral compass and their convictions despite difficult circumstances they couldn't understand. That shouldn't surprise me; "faith" is the root word of "faithfulness," and faith is defined as remaining trustful even when there is not enough proof or evidence to support that trust.

As I have considered the word "faithfulness" for the past week, I've been surprised at how often I've heard it, or some version of it, in everyday conversation. Faithfulness is more important to good living than we think. It denotes solidness, commitment, unwavering determination to follow a vision, and a certain level of peace infusing the one who is being faithful. 

It's a comforting word, a good word: He is a faithful worker. She is a faithful friend. Husband's faithfulness in loving me through thick and thin makes home a "little heaven on earth" for me. Jayne's faithfulness in blogging every day is a huge blessing to me when I get up in the mornings.  I am prepared for my big, important meeting on Monday because of my assistant's faithfulness in making sure all my materials have been put together and the groundwork done. My mother faithfully prays for me. And so on. A person who demonstrates "faithfulness" is someone you can depend on.

You wouldn't think of this right away, I'll wager, but those who are faithful and dependable are the ones who sneak into our hearts and make us a tad bit emotional when we think of them.  Faithfulness is not a a common quality to come by, and therefore, in the economy of fruit of the spirit, it's really precious.

One summer I decided to head for Europe with a friend, the mother of one of my students. The student was off seeing her father, so Sylvia and I headed for Scandinavia, with a side trip down to see my relatives in Holland. Upon hitting Amsterdam, Sylvia got culture shocked, although I didn't realize it. My attention was happily turned toward reconnecting with my relatives when we got to Rotterdam. The next morning Sylvia woke up and told me she was going to head for Norway, where her ex-boyfriend happened to be hanging out. Off she went to the train station, and I was left on my own, a bit peeved at her unfaithfulness to our plans to travel together...and a bit lonely.

I hopped a train for Paris, which had been our original plan. I'd never seen Paris before, and spent a few days there hiking all over the city, seeing museums and landmarks, and dodging the occasional Japanese tourist asking me to spend the evening with him. One evening I climbed the stairs up a steep hill to Sacre Coeur, a cathedral with unusual-looking towers. I stepped in the doorway and heard a choir singing. Moving deeper into the church and finding a pew, I realized it was an American youth choir, and they were singing the hymn, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with thee;

Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not;

As thou has been, thou forever wilt be.

Great is thy faithfulness!  Great is thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed thy hand hath provided;

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Suddenly, hearing that great old hymn, the tears started to flow. I might be alone in a new city, my friend may have left me, I might have a million questions about my life and my dreams coming to fruition, but God's faithfulness to me is dependable.  I knew that for sure in that moment, in a way that has stayed with me ever since.

Which brings me to my last thought. 

Since living in the Spirit produces godly fruit in us, one of the characteristics of living in the Spirit is Faithfulness. God is faithful, so I, too, am called to be faithful. Our lives rarely turn out the way we hope or expect them to turn out, and we often disappoint ourselves more than anyone else. But in the end, we can hope that those who follow us and those who look at our lives in the judgment day will conclude that although we weren't perfect, we were faithful.

There's a song that I first heard sung by Steve Green, which expresses well my own desire to be faithful; it's been running through my head all week, and I couldn't end this post with anything less than the lyrics:

We're pilgrims on the journey of the narrow road,

And those who've gone before us line the way

Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary,

Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace.

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses

Let us run the race not only for the prize;

But as those who've gone before us, 

Let us leave to those behind us

The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives.

Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful!

May the fire of our devotion light their way!

May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe,

And the lives we live inspire them to obey.

Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful!

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone,

And our children sift through all we've left behind,

May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover

Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.

Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful!

May the fire of our devotion light their way!

May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe,

And the lives we live inspire them to obey.

Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful!