And, you thought faith was all about the stuff you believe! I did for years. I could rattle off what I believed faster than a thirsty runner can down a bottle of water.
“I believe in God!” “I believe the Bible!” “The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it!” “I believe in the virgin birth.” “I believe…well, you get the point.
I’m at a little different place today. And, I cannot help but feel it’s a little closer to what the stories of scripture…as well as the stories I find in other faith traditions…really mean when they speak of faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is confidence…in what we do not see. This is the faith the ancients were commended for.”
It’s the kind of faith moderns are commended for, too.
Your faith may involve beliefs. But, don’t ever mistake your beliefs for your faith. Beliefs are only your feeble efforts to give expression to your faith experience. Beliefs are like pieces of a puzzle that you try and put together so that they capture something of the beauty of your inner transformation. But, don’t ever think the pieces of the puzzle, nor even the picture of that ineffable Presence that emerges when the pieces are all put together, could ever BE that Presence.
The problem with most religions, including Christianity, is that the pieces of our individual puzzles, and the pieces of our varied denominations within Christianity, too quickly take on a life of their own. Before long, the statements you make about Source become more important to you than the Source toward which those statements point.
Which is why, of course, there are so many denominations within Christianity. But, lest you mistakenly think I’m just picking on Christianity, it’s the same in every other religion, too.
This is precisely why the Buddha said, “The finger that points to the moon is not the moon.” Much of modern religion is little more than finger pointing. We wear those beliefs like a glove then spend most of our time pointing our beloved fingers at each other, shouting, “We’re right! You’re wrong!”
Madness. That’s why I like the picture in this post. It puts faith in its proper perspective.
Faith, real transformative faith, is never really found in your beliefs. Your beliefs, at best, hide your insecurities. When people dash about quoting the Bible, for example, as if by quoting it, they’re proving themselves “right” and those who disagree as “wrong,” they are really only using the Bible as a wall behind which a fragile limiting faith hides.
Real faith needs no such foundation to pretend to be standing upon when really it hides behind it.
Real faith is your willingness to step into the unknown, knowing the Unknown is there.
When you live from this place of faith, you’ll understand what the writer of Hebrews was trying to say.
Blessed stepping, my friend.
I was a very conservative Christian until the age of twenty four or so. At that point I drifted away with little thought about returning. Once I began to have children I wanted them to experience a Christian upbringing and returned to the church. The problem was the Bible no longer made sense and so my grand return was over in a matter of months. At twenty eight a friend loaned me a book about the teachings of Buddha. Finally, a religion that made sense! I became Buddhist and remained so for twelve years. This “foreign” belief system brought many problems to my Baptist family and friends. Last year I began reading the teachings of Muhammad and was certainly thrilled with what I discovered. All three said pretty much the exact same thing! I returned to my dusty Bible and began studying the teaching of Jesus only and left the rest of it alone. No longer did it contradict itself. My thoughts on this are this; if Jesus didn’t mention it in his teaching it must not be important. Am I a Christian now? Many of my Christian friends say no but they don’t really think past what they were taught as children. I do follow the teaching of Christ and much to the delight of family have returned to church when I can. But the important thing is I finally have peace about all of this that no one can take away.
This is beautiful Scott. Thanks for your transparency and honesty. Your story has been repeated in the lives of millions of believing people…me included. Have you read my book The Enoch Factor? If you’d like I’ll send you a copy – complimentary. Or, if you’d rather get it immediately to your reading device, you can download it at Amazon. Anyway, if you have not read it, I think you’ll find (or see) a lot of yourself in my own story. You are on a path now that brings you peace. That’s something no one can take from you. And why is that? Because it is the gift of the Prince of Peace himself. What could be more important than this? Blessings my friend. Thanks for writing.
Thank you Dr McSwain. I will begin reading it this week. Scott Stiller