the end of faith

Faith
“– noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing”

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (HEB. 11:1 ESV)

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith recently. What is it? Does faith end?

The verse above is one quickly memorized by new followers of Jesus, and comes to roll off the tongue quite easily. In fact, in my Bio 100 course in college, the first question asked by my Prof was, “What is the difference between science and religion?” A well intentioned Christ-follower in the room readily quoted Hebrews 11:1, which in all honesty, seemed really out of context at the time. Our Prof had a palpable disdain for people of faith, and would often lampoon those who took the Bible seriously – some of us specifically.

The thing I’ve been mulling over recently is - what is the difference between religion and faith? Sure, I know that religion is about us trying to earn our way to God. That’s not what I mean. What I mean is, when have we unwittingly allowed our faith to slide into becoming religion? Do we know all the right phrases and clichés, so that our ‘faith’ has become less of a dependent walk and more about being able to pass a test?

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been in the ancient texts of Genesis and Job recently and watched from eons away the struggles of the Patriarchs and Job.

What has been swirling in my head is this: can faith really be called ‘faith’ if it remains untested? Do I really have faith that a chair will support my weight if I never sit down in it? Faith is, after all, about trust.

Abraham trusted in God when all else seemed to say, “you’re just hearing voices, bloke”
Trust that it really was God calling Him out of Ur
That it was God telling him his descendents would outnumber the sand on the seashore
That God would make of him a great nation
That he would conceive a child, even in his old age, and when they had thought Sarah to be barren.

And yeah, Abraham tried to make some of these things happen in his own power, or using his own rationales (Hagar), but his example is really helpful for me. Now, I’ve never audibly heard the voice of God mind you, yet Abraham had to trust God. Even had to trust for some things that he would never see this side of heaven.

A friend of mine created an awesome photo of himself doing a ‘trust fall’ into a grave. It’s such a great picture of final faith.

But I wonder how I would try to capture daily faith in an artistic photo?

It’s like this faith is this daily, lifelong, dependent, pursuit of the unseen based upon compelling evidence. That evidence is another dozen or so posts, so it can wait.

To say that we’re trusting in God for eternal life, but not trusting Him in daily life – is that genuine faith? If we insulate ourselves from pain and trial are we trying to circumvent the role of faith in our lives? And beyond faith, is it possible that God allows some struggle in our lives for just that purpose: to test and refine our faith.

What I’m getting at is this: do I really have faith, if that faith is never being challenged, if it is never tested, if it never comes to a place of external or internal opposition? In America, most of us don’t rely day-to-day on the providence of God to make it through each day. If I am comfortable in my 4 bedroom, 2 car garage home, with my 2 kids and all my bills abundantly met… if I have every genuine need met and most of my wants covered… where is faith? Or do my beliefs fall more into a ‘religion’ category? Hasn’t it become philosophy and not faith? Where is the trust fall in that? Where do I need to allow the muscle, if you will, of faith to be exercised?

Perhaps grief and heartache are the Bowflex of faith? And yeah – that sucker is costly.

And do I really want the results? Or do I just like thinking about them…

To shift gears… does faith end?

I think so. I mean, Romans 8 says, “Hope that is seen is no hope at all”. So I live in faith, or trust, or hope to one day see Christ face to face because of his merits on my behalf, then naturally when it comes to pass then it is no longer hope, or trust, or faith.

And 1 Corinthians 13 (the most oft quoted passage at weddings) tells us that “where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears...
…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
So where there is no need for something (prophecy, tongues, special knowledge) it ceases. Interesting then that even hope and faith will one day come to an end. Yet even then, love will remain.
A great song that continues this ‘faith’ dialogue is Derek Webb’s “New Law” from his Mockingbird CD (or you can hear it at his site: here)

or just watch it:



‘til next time…