Clutch of Faith

Daniel Harvey Hill was an opinionated, outspoken, and deeply religious man.  Having graduated from West Point in the class of 1842, he had an aggressive and strict demeanor that served him well as he fought in the Mexican-American War.  Proving his leadership abilities in battle, he was promoted quickly and when the American Civil War broke out, Daniel Hill soon found himself commanding the Army of Tennessee as a Lieutenant General for the Confederacy.  As a soldier and a scholar, Daniel Hill was full of grit and wit.  With a dry sense of humor that oozed with sarcasm, he found ample opportunities to express himself verbally and in writings throughout his career of two-wars and one-dozen-battles.

The front wheel of my dirt bike approached the log.  I squeezed the clutch lever while I simultaneously twisted the throttle and revved the engine.  Unfortunately, at that critical juncture, the clutch emphatically declared that it was time to quit working.  Thus, my carefully timed wheelie that was going to let me hop heroically over the log did not go well.  The front wheel slammed into the log, and then I flew wildly over the handlebars.  The good news - my body easily cleared the log.  The bad news - my dirt bike remained forlornly disabled on the other side of the log.

Now, a valid question at this time would be; “What does a Confederate General have to do with a broken clutch and my lack of grace?”

As I laid on my back looking up at the puffy white clouds sailing overhead, I remembered a short story about General Daniel Hill that made me giggle in an “aha” moment.  Once, during the Civil War, Daniel Hill received a request from a soldier to transfer to the band.  In quick-witted fashion, he denied the request with the following phrase, “Shooters are more needed than tooters.” (1)

Yes, I thought that was funny.  Yes, I had my helmet on.  No, I don’t need concussion protocol.  Don’t worry.  My train of thought is just pulling into the station.  All aboard!

Concerning faith, there have been many illustrations offered up over the decades simply because faith is one of the more important Biblical topics.  Scripture states, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So we understand that without faith, it’s impossible to please God.  Obviously, per Scripture, faith is imperative.  But what is faith really?  That question has perplexed many authors throughout the ages.  How should faith be described?  The Bible defines faith as, “.....confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Since I’m kind of a gear head, one of the greatest illustrations to describe faith that I’ve ever come across is that “faith is like a clutch in a manual transmission”.  God is like the engine.  He has all the power and potential energy, but without the clutch there is no means to get all that power transferred to the wheel(s) at the right time.  In other words, without operating obedient faith, we will end up flat on our backs looking up at the sky going nowhere.

Faith is the clutch that connects us to all of God’s awesome divine power.   Conversely, the opposite is also true.  A lack of faith will quickly disconnect us from the power and smash us into a log.

Faith is how we interact with God so that all that is possible through Him becomes available to us.  We can slip the clutch which is likened to compromising our faith or we can pop the clutch and let God’s mighty power wheelie us over any obstacle in life.  To successfully navigate the tribulations of life, we must repeatedly use our faith.  It’s not an option.  The proper clutch application of faith should be as fundamentally important to a Christian as kneeling down in prayer or reading the Bible.  Just like with my dirt bike, without the clutch of faith, we will have a horrible time moving down the trail of life, that for most of us is littered with multiple obstacles.  It is essential that we learn to use and apply the clutch of faith because God’s activity in our lives is directly related to our degree of faith.

“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.””  Romans‬ ‭1:17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What, then, is the answer to tapping God’s unfathomable power?  

Simple answer:  Faith!

“He (Jesus) replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭17:20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

That’s not the end of the story, though, because we cannot just “toot” about our faith and expect results.  Remember my “aha” giggle moment and the phrase “Shooters are more needed than tooters”?  Appropriately then, bringing it all together, Christian soldiers must exercise their faith in the accompaniment of obedient action.

“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James‬ ‭2:17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Many Christians like to toot about their faith, but, frankly, unless that faith is reinforced with actions, it means nothing.  It is useless and dead.  And we all know what happens when our clutch of faith dies on the trail of life.  Yikes!  My back still hurts.

(1) Farwell, Byron. “The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Land Warfare: An Illustrated World View.” Google Books, Google, 2001, books.google.com/pg398