Holding onto Faith – Jason Hodges
This past year has been unbelievable. Maybe I should say catastrophic. I work for an airline and in August 2019 we carried approximately 3.5 million passengers. In August 2020 we carried approximately 35,000 passengers. A 98% decrease! It was obvious that redundancies were coming, and my wife and I began discussing worst-case scenarios.
What if I lose my job? I have no tertiary education, and job prospects for a pilot with no degree or any other type of work experience are poor. Not just for the short term but for the next five years. Financially this was a serious concern. My wife and I prayed about what God wanted us to do.
What would be our plan?
How could we survive the financial impact?
I felt God saying that we needed to remain consistent in our giving even though there would be a decrease in our income. God did not want us to reduce our giving if our income plummeted, but to give the amount we committed before the pandemic.
This really tested our faith. How could we follow God when logic and intuition says this is foolish? We felt drawn to the ‘wisdom’ of reducing, or even stopping our tithes and other forms of giving. Our instincts said
“Clench your hand and hold onto what you have until the future is clear.”
“Make sure you can maintain the lifestyle you enjoy.”
You get the point. God calling us to trust in him, to be obedient in opposition to what is instinctive. And we wanted to believe that as long as we leave our hands open, he will make sure our needs—if not our wants—are provided for. Our hands will not end up empty.
I hope you have read the devotional that our friends Jacques & Maria (not their real names) wrote about seeking a new home in Canada after their application for asylum status was denied in Hong Kong (https://vinechurch.life/resources 16th January). The generosity I saw from the members of our Community Group coming together to help them was incredible, humbling and challenging. From financial support, helping with the paperwork, getting translations done from French to English, and networking to help them get in touch with the right people—the process seemed to happen at unbelievable speed! We saw that when people are obedient to God, God gives success to their efforts. All this during the pandemic. People keeping their hands open and being obedient.
Lara and I saw how God had prepared us in advance for this worst-case scenario, even though it didn’t occur. We knew we would be safe in his hands no matter what happened. We felt a growing sense of peace replacing our anxiety and as we heard testimonies like the one from Jacques & Maria, it confirmed what God had been saying. God is teaching us how an intimate relationship with him prepares us to face any situation—even the worst case scenario. Because God is working for our good, offering his generous love to guide us—and you—into his plan, his purpose. And that future will bring glory to God and abundant blessings to us.
