Thought for Today
Psalm 146:5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;
Habakkuk 2:4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Last night, in our Bible Study, Mark 11:23 was part of the passage we were discussing, “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.” Inevitably, we were led to a discussion about faith. Faith is a word we Christians sometimes bandy about carelessly and without sufficient serious consideration.
Equally inevitably, in almost any discussion about faith, Hebrews 11:1 was referenced. I know of no better definition for faith than is offered by the author of Hebrews. My Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms offers, “In Christianity, belief, trust and obedience to God as revealed in Jesus Christ. It is the means of salvation (Eph. 2:8-9) or eternal life (John 6:40). Faith affects all dimensions of one’s existence: intellect, emotions, and will.” (pg. 100) Certainly a longer definition; but, a more limited and restricted definition. When asked about faith, I always go with Hebrews 11:1.
As I pondered on faith after our Bible Study and again this morning, I thought about a Jimmy Buffett song, Gravity Storm. I did not mention that song last night, in part because Jimmy Buffett songs are not generally one’s first recourse when thinking about theology. As an aside, I am generally a big fan of Jimmy Buffett music. I love the joy and lilt in most of his songs. And my path from Hebrews to Gravity Storm is not nearly as tortured or esoteric as it may seem.
Christians sometimes refer to ourselves as people of faith. We read and hear a lot about faith. We generally are using that more restrictive definition represented by my dictionary. But, faith, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” is inextricably interwoven into life itself. That song, Gravity Storm, reminds me of that intimate relationship between life and faith.
Evidently, in some Caribbean cultures, whenever someone stumbles or falls, reference is made to encountering a ‘gravity storm.’ How many of us, when we take a step forward, ever worry about gravity or whether we might encounter a ‘gravity storm’? We have full, confident assurance, faith, that gravity will continue to keep us firmly attached to the earth at our feet. Even if we know all about the earth’s rotation about its axis and orbit around the sun, we are confident that gravity will bind us firmly to the ground. Have you ever seen gravity? Not the effects of gravity, but gravity itself. Of course not! Gravity is a thing hoped for, something of which we are convinced but which we have never seen. We have faith.
The same is true of air. Hopefully, none of us ever see the air we breathe. If we do, there are probably suspended particulates we really don’t want to breathe. We do see the effects of air, the movement of the leaves on the trees. We feel the varying pressure of the air as breezes stir around us. We are assured that the air is there, we hope the air is there, we are convinced the air is there. We have faith.
Why, then, do some have so much trouble believing in God? Many of us can see the effect of God on our lives. We believe in the creations of God, in the air, in the forces binding together our universe. We have that faith. But, some claim that they cannot have faith in what they cannot see. Is it easier to believe in a Big Bang? To have faith in some accidental, impersonal, purposeless existence and reality? To do so would require me to ignore all the evidence in my own life and the world around me which proves to me that the God I love and worship is the Creator of all Creation, that God loves me, cares about me and watches over me.
Stay safe, have faith, trust God,
Pastor Ray