Faith

I listened to a Youtube video today. I will also clarify that perhaps, Nadia Bolz-Weber should get some sort of "cyber restraining order" from me. I read "Pastrix" her book about her own journey of faith. I've listened to her on NPR's "On Being", I've listened to interviews, sermons, and re-read the book. Every time I hear her, I hear God. I hear the God that reinforces my path and the place that all "damaged" people come from and our ability to do (collectively of course) great things from that space.

So, I listened to another YouTube video today. Rev. Bolz-Weber spoke about the faith in a way that I am still reeling from. She speaks about individual versus communities of faith. That God doesn't give us more than we can handle is an "us" statement, not a "you/individual" statement. She also regards the same to be true of the Apostles' Creed. Saying, "oh my god, nobody believes every line of the creed." But, that each of us believes a line, a part, a word, or a spirit of it. And, together we ALL end up believing all of the creed.

Amen. I use that word a lot lately. I can't begin to convey what that one word means. It's like a sigh of recognition, looking into my own heart, God, creation, love, truth, and definitive emotion all at once. And, since I believe in getting to the point...you will see many "amens" on Facebook posts, emails, and even texts. It conveys far more than one simple word.

But, faith as defined by community is huge. It's when we don't think we can do something we've never tried before. And, the moral support of a friend or partner gives us the strength to pull a battery out and in fact fix a vehicle sans tow truck. It's when we are working 2 or 3 jobs and we don't have time to sleep in and someone offers to take the kids to school for us. It's that faith is this transient thing. It's this "invisible backpack" that I can pick up for you when it gets too heavy. And, you are able to lighten the load when I am weary. It's this relational trust because we know God is fond of us. And, we know that we are fond of each other even though we get on the "crazy train" every once in a while. But, faith is knowing that we can go there (not in an attempt to screw things up or be ugly) and we are loved anyway (but, because we can't help but...).

Faith is knowing that we are loved and that God thinks fondly of us...so, there's no "prove it". Because, the minute we ask for proof...it stops becoming faith. It becomes this intellectual proposition, this evidential hearing. That doesn't mean we don't doubt. But, we cannot expect love, devotion, being...to be illustrated in the same manner as a math problem.

Until next time...
M