What is Faith?
What is Faith?
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen... by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”
Blessed Assurance
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
For as long as I can remember, Blessed Assurance has been one of my favorite hymns, specifically the line “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.” I’ve struggled with anxiety and panic attacks from a young age, so having a mantra to repeat that reminded me of Jesus with me was very helpful growing up, and even now.
In reflecting on faith over the past few days, I was struck by how faith is like a river. It is fed from a water source, it is abundant. Sometimes it swells and rushes, vibrantly; other times it lulls and sometimes it stands still.
When I was little, the storms of anxiety always bubbling below the surface like a volcano, were quelled with reminders of Jesus with me, the one truth my young faith always clung to. The assurance that I hoped for was to be held; tethered to something that would remind me that I wasn’t all alone in a world that felt unsafe at times.
On the mission field, growing up with my parents in Brazil, I saw so much hunger and poverty and pain. I would budget parts of my allowance to give to the people who would come up to our car windows asking for money to buy food.
I knew that the way I was seeing the world in its present reality, was not the way it was supposed to be. It was unsafe for people who were hurting, and this made me sad. My only way through, when we would be out and about and encounter people who were hurting, was to choose to remember that it wouldn’t always be this way.
A Living Hope
As I grew older, and the “one day, in heaven this will all be in the past” theology of my youth began to not be enough, my faith found depth and nuance in thinking about things hoped for, and learning how I could be a part of those things, here and now.
A living hope; a posture of living into the things we hope for a world that is hurting, tunes our hearts not only to the pain of others, but to the work of God in their midst.
A living hope is an active faith, like the raging river that swells with life. Howard Thurman is credited with saying “don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go and do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
What makes you come alive?
Spend some time with that question this week, ponder it, and then by faith, go and do that thing. Share your living hope with the world around you, because in this way, you can partner with God in God’s dream for a world where love is greater than fear, and peace has settled into the hearts of God’s beloved created ones all over the world.
Partnering with God in What is Unseen...
The roots of systemic racism run very, very deep. They are largely unseen, and thus have been able to self-perpetuate for centuries. Histories have been watered down so that minority voices have been silenced and even erased over time.
Though unseen, the undercurrent of white supremacy in our society is always bubbling under the surface, coming out in different ways that are seen: slavery, Jim Crow Laws, modified/modern Jim Crow laws today, police brutality, income inequality.
The same is true of a faith that embraces a living hope and partners with God in using things that are unseen to bring about a new way of life for the world around us.
““Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go and do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” ”
What would it look like in your life for an undercurrent of righteousness and commitment to justice to reach a boiling point and bubble over into action? What are the unseen parts of your faith that are at work deep in your soul? During this time of self-isolation in a pandemic, what parts of your faith have surprised you?
Perhaps you have found an inner resolve you didn’t know you had, to rise above the loneliness and look outward to the world around you; and in so doing, found a deeper faith in the presence of God with you and with others.
Maybe your prayer life has blossomed in these days. As we all struggle from time to time to remember what day it is, in prayer we find grounding and peace. Maybe you have embraced praying the scriptures or journaling your thoughts on how a familiar passage of scripture has breathed fresh life into you.
However your faith has morphed or grown in this very strange time, use it to partner with God in things that are unseen: inclusive love that is welcoming of all, commitment to justice and peace, building bridges of love instead of barriers of hate that divide and alienate.
...So That Unseen Dreams May Become Visible
I believe the dream of God for the world is a multifaceted reconciling of humans to creation, humans to one another, and creation and humanity to God.
If faith is the assurance of what is hoped for and the conviction of things not seen; if we believe by faith that God created the world using things that are unseen, to create things that our seen, then our faith should be a reflection of what we believe about God’s dream for the world.
Our faith should reflect the part we believe we are to play in bringing this dream to visibility.
It’s been hard for me to find words of hope in these days when every day, there is a new report of violence against Black people. I’ve been considering the question “how can my faith, largely build on unseen ideals and values like love, justice, and inclusivity become vibrant and alive in ways that are seen; like people actually feeling loved, actually knowing that their life matters?”
I’m stuck, friends. Stuck in trying to answer my own question. And in those stuck times, I turn to the example of those who have gone before me who are listed for all time in the Hebrews 11 “Faith Hall of Fame,” as I’ve heard it called.
By faith, all these ordinary people trusted in God to help them do what God was calling them to do. I’m sure they were scared, like I often am. The cost of living an active faith in partnership with God’s dream for the world is great, because God’s dream for the world is antithetical to the way our society wants to live.
We want to glorify youth where God calls us to honor our elders and to value human life, even the lives we want to cast aside as invaluable because their days of productivity are long gone.
““How can my faith, largely build on unseen ideals and values like love, justice, and inclusivity become vibrant and alive in ways that are seen; like people actually feeling loved, actually knowing that their life matters?””
We want to deify capitalism and vilify people who are struggling in a capitalist society where greed and the bottom line are more important than human life, and basic human decency.
We want to live like the least of these are a nuisance, when Jesus specifically said that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.
How can my faith, built on values that are unseen become seen?
In my following the example of ordinary people who transcended their own fears and hang-ups for the greater good of the world around them; who let their lives become less and their commitment to serving God become greater.
I can use my voice in writing letters and calling my representatives demanding justice for our elders, for Black victims of police brutality and their families.
I can invite people into service with me.
Every day I make calls to our senior adults, to check in with them and let them know they are not forgotten. A simple act reveals a greater theological truth to isolated elders: “If my church has not forgotten me, then maybe my God has not forgotten me.”
Faith is nurtured in community.
I pray that throughout my life, I can always be a person who invites people into deeper relationships with Christ and with each other; because our faith can become alive and active when we are practicing it together.
Let’s commit to sharpening each other’s faith, to encouraging our elders, to helping our Black siblings in the faith to shoulder their traumatic burdens.
Let’s commit to praying for each other, to calling each other out when we need to, to having hard conversations with the people around us as racial divides threaten to become chasms that fracture our humanity.
Let us be assured that we have a living hope in Jesus Christ, a living hope that invites us into partnership with God to show God’s great and incomprehensible love to the world around us.
For in this assurance, we can move mountains of bigotry, ageism, sexism, racism; anything that divides us and keeps us less human. Thanks be to God for faith and a living hope!
Rev. Sara Robb-Scott currently serves as the Pastor for Senior Adults and Pastoral Care at First Baptist Church of Decatur. To read more of her writing, visit her website at sarainrealife.com