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* I think, for me, the process has required discovering faith AGAIN for the first time! I didn’t want just a ‘bigger’ faith… that would have just been more of what I was already experiencing. I wanted a ‘better’ faith! (I want an “upgraded faith”) Review: ● Apparently (according to Hebrews 11:1-3, 6), faith requires (2) fundamental postures: A belief that God IS, and, A belief that your search for him will be rewarded. ● “Faith”… A set of beliefs that an individual(s) holds which orders their lives, offers answers to significant life-questions and provides meaningful-direction for their pursuits (meaning: everyone functions on the basis of what they believe to be true). ● It appears that in order to find out if there is a God, I have to act as if he is already there. That faith involves some level of belief before you understand. Seasons of faith… Most often, our faith starts out in a rather rudimentary (basic; simple; undeveloped) fashion. Our approach is more academic and less relational. The emphasis is on “getting the answers right”, not on realizing how we arrived at those conclusions. But, once our faith- equations fail, we conclude that we have got the wrong ‘technique’ (pursue deeper truth… the hidden message of the gospel!) We then seem to move into a season of ‘struggle; inner-conflict’. With all of our techniques proving less than effective, we conclude that the only thing we can know for sure is that we can’t know for sure! * We arrive, now, at this point with… …more questions than answers, …frustration over all of our failed strategies for figuring God out, …a true aversion to pad, clichéd answers (i.e. little boy in Sunday School who knew the type of answers that he was supposed to give: “What’s brown, furry, has a long tail and stores up nuts for the winter?” Well, I guess the answer is Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!) …but, surprisingly, an enlarged capacity to experience ‘authentic faith’. * I am coming to realize that the only reason I have not completely abandoned my search for God because of this internal discomfort I feel about my faith is that I want to be authentic; I care about truth; I care about being a student of Jesus; my heart keeps affirming what my head just can’t handle! * If we believe that he IS and continue to seek, the reward is most often “humble faith”. ► Humble faith is keenly aware of our limitations (in what we can know and our tendency to misinterpret information and circumstances). Therefore, we remain teachable. ► Humble faith is a faith that is being ‘condensed’ (lit. ‘to make compact; to increase in strength’). It’s a more ‘simplistic’ faith, but more potent faith because it has been reduced; since I won’t have ALL the answers, I can concentrate on reaching fewer identifiable conclusions. ► Humble faith makes me less demanding of others; less judgmental and more relational. In humble faith we are growing in our ability to honor other’s journeys and appreciate what they have to contribute to our faith. * It’s not believing things about God but believing in the God who would do such things. “I know whom I have believed” (not, “I know what I believe”) 2 Timothy 1:12 John 6:66-69 “Because of this, many of Jesus’ followers turned back and would not go with him any more (easy to love; not easy to follow). So he asked the twelve disciples, ‘And you, would you also like to leave?’ Simon Peter said, ‘Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words that give eternal life’.” Peter is saying, “You keep insisting that we should know who you are and where you’re going, but… I’m not sure where I am or what I’m doing, but I KNOW YOU, Jesus! THE ONLY THING THAT COULD BE LESS DESIRABLE THAN HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD BASED ON FAITH IS NOT HAVING ONE AT ALL! * In humble faith, we are more comfortable with concepts like ‘sovereignty’ and ‘transcendence’. “sovereignty”- that even in the absence of any visual confirmation, God’s good intentions for creation have not been thwarted; that his decision to offer humanity a choice (freedom) was to teach us ‘love’, not to suggest that we were in control. “transcendence”- that his ‘otherness’ only accentuates my faith; I need him to be bigger (other; more) than my life and my limited perspective! * We’re OK with 1 Corinthians 13:12… “…we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face to face. Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now”. * Humble faith means that I believe in what cannot be ‘proven’; that I have to proceed on incomplete evidence; that I am being asked to believe now what will only really become clear in the future. * And we have come to accept them, not because we’re lazy or don’t feel like wrestling with the issues anymore, just that we know that our understanding is ‘fuzzy’ at best (it’s not the absence of evidence, just the limitations of our understanding!) ► Humble faith is comfortable with mystery and honesty. Since it lives within the context of mystery, it learns to ask for ‘wisdom’ (James 1:5 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking”.) “Mystery” doesn’t mean that we can NEVER know, just that such knowledge must be ‘revealed’; that there are certain conclusions we will never reach on our own! ► Humble faith allows room for doubt. Granted, doubt can be detrimental to faith. If left unchecked, it can lead to what the Bible describes as a “hard heart”… refusal to believe (Ephesians 4:18). Doubt isn’t refusing to believe, but is merely searching for “better” belief! * If we are wrong about what we believe, doubt may help us find the error in our belief system and discard it; it we are right about what we believe, doubt can help confirm and solidify our faith. ► Humble faith is resilient. Only a faith that allows me to navigate through life’s most painful and confusing episodes is worth keeping. It’s these moments that challenge “why” we believe, as much as “what” we believe. * We often assume that once my faith becomes more ‘mature’, that we will have outgrown that ‘childlikeness’ that Jesus insisted was essential for initiating relationship with God. Once our ‘faith skills’ are fully honed, we will no longer need such naïve faith. * Instead, every day (multiple times a day) we return to the epicenter of our faith… GOD IS and OUR SEARCH FOR HIM WILL BE REWARDED. We battle through the ‘separation anxiety’ that the disciples experienced and begin again.
If we don’t, we actually run the risk of
developing a faith that has little to do with God.
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