The Faith of Advent

I received the following from a long-time colleague and friend in ministry. I thought it was a seasonally appropriate devotional.

As I've been studying for this weeks sermon, I uncovered two quotes about faith that I just had to pass along.  Mary and Joseph demonstrated such incredible faith, the shepherds lived out faith, and the wise men were men of faith as well.  Oh how I need to grow more in this area and be a better man of faith!  So what is faith?  Philip Yancey said: "Faith is believing in advance in something that will only seem logical when seen in reverse."  Stop and ponder that thought for a moment.  As Americans, we want all our ducks in a row and we want to know the logical conclusion before we ever step out, but is that really faith?  I don't think so.  Mary and Joseph weren't like that.  They didn't have all the facts.  The shepherds weren't like that.  They didn't know all the details.  And the wise men for sure weren't like that.  They didn't even know where they were going when they started out their desert journey.