The road to the hall of fame of faith is paved with obedience.
By faith mortals grab a hold of the divine;
Looking beyond the visible, tangible, and expressible.
In obedience the substance of faith is tried and tested;
Proven beyond doubt, honoured without reproach;
Consigned to the realms of the visible.

Without faith impossibilities reign supreme:
Pleasing God becomes much less than a pipe dream;
Hope is strangled and love is without siblings,
Friends become strangers, and strangers become enemies;
There is no righteousness, just condemnation,
The bearable becomes intolerable and doubt drowns salvation.

Without obedience faith becomes a castle in the sky:
Beautiful to behold, full of promise, but inaccessible;
No better than an illusion, a mirage to make thirsty men cry,
For joy at first, then out of misery, then desperation incompressible;
Sacrifice loses its worth, deliverance goes awry;
Divinity and mundanity become irreconcilable, firmly incompatible.

By faith and in obedience, bridges are built to places unknown,
Forays are made into territories uncharted and foreboding;
Possibilities and probabilities become strange bedfellows
With certainties and the insuperable – weightless on these scales.
Death is not an obstacle and life is not an excuse,
For faith and obedience are by no means without affliction,
But for the promises set in pearls and crowned with diamonds,
There is grace made available for convictions to overcome afflictions.

#Hebrews 11