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Tag Archives: Faith
Pulling the Lever: The Content and Connection of Faith
Theology is not meant to fill our heads but to better our lives. Theologians tell us that when a person trusts in Jesus Christ a great transition takes place in his or her life. That person is literally connected to … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Faith, Spiritual life, Uncategorized
Tagged Bonhoeffer, Colossians 3:1-4, content of faith, Faith
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When Faith Is Hardest (It’s Not When You Think)
People have told me that life is so painful and unfair, there cannot be a God. But no one has ever said to me: “Life is so easy and painless, there must be a God.” Life’s hardships, not its comforts, turn people from God; and life’s hardships turn people to him.
Even people who have turned to God, who attend worship services regularly, pray, and support the church financially, find it difficult to trust God when hard times come. The ironic thing is: they find it even harder to trust God when everything is going well. When things are going well, few people feel the need to trust. Continue reading
Posted in Faith, Spiritual life
Tagged Faith, revival, spiritual awakening, Trusting God in suffering
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When Does Happily Ever After Start?
In faith-friendly books and movies, principal characters always face struggles and frequently experience doubts. As their circumstances worsen, their doubts grow and then, at some critical moment, they face a difficult decision. Will they trust God or will they go their own way?
In the few movies and books in this genre with which I’m familiar, a secondary character usually models the wrong choice for the reader or viewer. The protagonist then models the right choice by trusting God. After that moment of faith, the suspense grows greater still. The question of whether the hero will trust God is already decided. Now the question is whether God will prove himself worthy of that trust. Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Christianity, Faith, Uncategorized
Tagged Euodia and Syntyche, Faith, faith-friendly movies, Hebrews 11, Priscilla and Aquila, Romans 1:17
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Forego Thanksgiving, Try Again Next Year?
2020 has been called the annus horribilis (“the horrible year”) and described as hellacious, apocalyptic, awful, and exhausting. The pandemic rages on, with some areas seeing higher infection rates than ever before. Many people are out of work and out of money and, as the coronavirus spikes, some are out of time.
Those who manage to avoid the virus can’t sidestep the measures taken to prevent its spread. In my state, restaurants are closed, mask requirements are in place, high schools and colleges have moved online, and theaters are shut down. Sports stadiums are empty. Churches, like ours, are seeing half their members attending worship gatherings.
Experts warn that the pandemic is causing anxiety, stress, stigma, and xenophobia. A review published in The Lancet linked an increase in mental health problems to the boredom, loss of freedom, and uncertainty caused by quarantine. Children and teens are most at risk.
We have heard the welcome news that an effective vaccine is around the corner, but many Americans are wary of taking it. Even those who are eager for the vaccine may be looking at the summer of 2021 before they are able to get it.
As if the pandemic was not bad enough, there was also the election. Usually after a general election, the nation recovers and, to some degree, reconciles. This year’s election did little to decrease divisiveness but rather increased it. Many people have lost faith in the election process, while others have doubts about the transition process.
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Doormat Faith: There Is Something Better
By “doormat faith” I (following Dickson) do not mean faith that turns people into doormats but faith that gets people to the doormat and leaves them there. They remain outside of the kind of life that apprenticeship to Jesus makes possible.
Doormat faith is not the obedience-producing, righteousness-accompanying, love-expressing faith about which St. Paul so frequently wrote. Doormat faith brings no assurance. It falls short of being transformational.
This is not to say that doormat faith is a bad thing. It is certainly no substitute for the faith that connects a person to God, but it can be a precursor to it. Its strength is that it leads people to the doorstep of a richly satisfying life with God. Its weakness is that it cannot bring people through the door. It is good, but it is not enough.
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Posted in Christianity, Faith, Spiritual life
Tagged conversion, deathbed confession, Faith, types of faith
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Nostalgia and Faith: Can They Coexist?
No one needs faith for something that has already happened. Faith, by its nature, requires a future component, a measure of uncertainty. In situations where there is no uncertainty – the package has already arrived, as promised, the test has been scored – faith is superfluous.
Does this imply that people of faith, like myself, will not be nostalgic, since nostalgia is about the settled past and faith is about the unsettled future? I hope not, because I sometimes wax nostalgic, particularly around the holidays. I remember winter mornings when my brother and I would run out on the front porch in our bare feet to retrieve the foil-topped bottles the milkman had left. We’d pour ourselves a glass, then chew the frozen milk crystals that collected on the top.
Such memories are pleasant to me. Nostalgia is not about times of loneliness and sorrow, but about times of peace and camaraderie. The past I remember seems simpler, gentler, and more manageable. Unlike the future, the past never incites fear.
When the term “nostalgia” first came into use in the 17th century, it denoted a kind of mental illness. The doctor who coined the term described it as a “neurological disease of essentially demonic cause.” It was thought to be a type of home-sickness – the term coming from the Greek roots for “returning home” and for “pain.”
In recent years, however, social scientists have discovered various benefits that accompany nostalgia. Continue reading
Posted in Faith, Lifestyle, Spiritual life, Theology
Tagged Faith, historical roots of Christianity, Holy Communion, nostalgia
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Why I Keep an Empty Coke Can on My Shelf
When I was young, my parents or other adults occasionally quoted to me the old saw, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” I haven’t heard that for a long time. It’s as if the maxim has dropped out … Continue reading
Heaven Does Not Have an EB-5 Visa Program
In recent weeks, many of us learned for the first time that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services offers an employment-based visa with permanent resident status to foreigners who are willing to invest large sums of money in commercial … Continue reading
Promising a Better Future, Delivering a Better Present
The British ocean liner R.M.S. Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. As people rushed to the lifeboats, a woman passenger asked the captain what to do. The captain, according to Erik Larson’s book, Dead Wake: … Continue reading
You’ve Got to Believe It to See It
There is in Christianity an emphasis on faith that is, to my knowledge, unequalled in any major religion. In most religions, faith is presupposed. In Christianity it is demanded. In general, religions can be summed up with a set of … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Faith, Spiritual life, Theology
Tagged belief, Christianity and other religions, Faith, Jesus, John 11:14-15, John 6:29, Lazarus, Romans 1:17, spiritual formation, trust
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