Is Faith This? Or . . . . .?
Friday, April 15,
2016
Jeff Lampl
Jeff Lampl
Because I was after a girl in college . . . . .
I agreed to go to her Campus Pastor to “get saved” so that .
. . .
I would be acceptable to her. She knew I was not a believer so she wanted
God to fix me. Of course I agreed
because the payoff was her.
Into the campus ministry headquarters we went, where a cool,
hip Christian student leader met us. It
was really uncomfortable, kind of like going to a doctor who was going to do
something bad and permanent to me.
He explained that God loved me, had a plan for my life, that
Christ died for my sin and that if I believed and prayed the right prayer I
would be a Christian and could go to heaven when I die. I prayed the prayer.
He then explained faith to me. He said it is one thing to believe that I can jump over a chasm,
but faith is actually jumping.
But that made things confusing. What if I believe but don’t always act on
what I believe? What if I don’t always
jump when I’m supposed to? Does that mean
that my faith isn’t real and that God is mad at me and that I might not go to
heaven? And then there was the prayer
dilemma. What about all those times I
pray for someone and the person gets worse?
Is it my fault because my faith is too weak? Am I then actually a detriment to God and to
others?
Now, decades later, I ask myself, what if faith is more like
confidence in God than striving harder to serve Him? What if faith is realizing that God has
bridged the chasm between him and us?
What if faith is not my leaping, but His bridging?
What if faith is not
about trusting God to make my life better, rather it’s trusting God no matter
how heavy the cross, no matter how poorly I succeed in being the person I
should be? What if faith is not my striving to make
bigger leaps, but about his carrying me over life’s chasms? Maybe that’s what Hebrews 6:19 means.
"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."
Hebrews 6:19 (NIV2011)
Follow on Twitter @jefflampl
No comments:
Post a Comment