Who Would Want My Faith?

She said, “I wish I had your faith,” in the midst of a conversation about what keeps me from flipping out in any given news cycle. I have faith nothing that is going on is a surprise to God;  nothing that seems to me to be careening out of control – is moving even a nanometer out of His boundaries.

Am I just whistling past a graveyard? 

No and yes.

An infinite omnipotent, yet personal Creator God makes sense to me; a causeless confluence of energy doesn’t. However, current events frighten me; so do some of my fellow humans’ education, values and goals. I don’t think fear itself is the only scary thing flowing freely around today. Millions times millions of people suffered and died in the last century, many never fully understanding how their fellow men could do what they did to them. Believing in God, even the One of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as many did, did not spare them. Reading history and the news makes me fear my fellow man, and myself.

Fear also wrecks any chance of a civil conversation with others, as well as an edifying chat with myself.  Fear, wrote Samuel Butler, is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

My faith in Christ, faltering as it often is, should create – increasing peace within me and with others – no matter the circumstances. (Isaiah 54:4; Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 5:9) My faith in Christ may not change my circumstances – or remove me from them; but with Him, I can get through them. (Psalm18:28-29) And my faith in Christ bids me ask you to come along with us – If we stumble, we won’t be down long; God’s got a firm grasp on our hands! (Psalm 37:23-24) Perhaps the waters around us will rise – literally or figuratively – they will not overflow us.  (Isaiah 43:2) 

Faith worth sharing is faith that is well-fed. Talk-radio and the news nourish fear, not faith. A wise counselor said once, “Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!” So, I sing – for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my song. (Fanny Crosby, a woman blinded by a doctor’s mistake, deserted by her husband, impoverished and mother to an infant taken too soon to heaven) 

I have heard that courage is faith that has said her prayers – O God! I believe; Help Thou my unbelief!