Faith: Living "As If"

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1552c963.jpg"> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="158" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#660000 HEIGHT= 71 WIDTH="146"><div> <A HREF="wf.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Waco Partnership for Psychological and S"><U>Waco Partnership for Psychological and Spiritual Care (WPPSC)</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="mailto:wmeades@gmail.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:wmeades@gmail.com"><U><IMG SRC="6799c150.png" border=0 width="156" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Practical Spirituality"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="intro.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Introduction"><U>Introduction</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id484.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Faith is NOT: Part 1"><U>What Faith is NOT: Part 1</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id485.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Faith is NOT: Part 2"><U>What Faith is NOT: Part 2</U></A></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dcffffff00.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Faith: Living "As If"</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id487.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith: What Gets You Up in the Morning?"><U>Faith: What Gets You Up in the Morning?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id488.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith and Telling the Truth"><U>Faith and Telling the Truth</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Abby and the Bad Witch"><U>Abby and the Bad Witch</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mfis_htm.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mature, Functional and Immature Spiritua"><U>Mature, Functional and Immature Spirituality</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id502.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith: Concrete and Abstract Thinking"><U>Faith: Concrete and Abstract Thinking</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="rohrville.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Trip to Rohrville"><U>A Trip to Rohrville</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=170 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="589" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 143 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="78480800.png" border=0 width="128" height="128" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="78c9e700.png" border=0 width="414" height="112" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="146"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="146" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="432"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="432" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=310 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Faith: Living "As If"</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="702" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1403 WIDTH="696"><div> <B>Faith: Living "As I</B><B>f"</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >  </FONT>   I assume that most of you reading these words have a calendar.  Whether it's a fancy electronic gadget or the old fashioned paper and pencil style, you enter appointments and plans somewhere.  Here's the question: What if you could only schedule appointments on days when you literally could guarantee, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your car would start?  It's a rather ridiculous question, isn't it?  Since you never can guarantee that your car is going to start, you have to make these appointments in faith.  You will schedule <B>as if</B> you know your car will start, even though you can't possibly guarantee that it will.  Or, in other words, you will choose to live in transportational faith.</div> <bR> <div>      Faith is not, in and of itself, a religious or spiritual concept.  Faith is simply choosing to live <B>as if</B> something is true even though you cannot prove it to be true.  You plan a ski trip in faith that there will be snow on the mountain when you arrive.  You walk down the aisle and link your life with another person in faith that both of you will keep all those idealistic promises made in front of God and everybody else.  You invite someone over for dinner on Friday night and promise them a big bowl of your special chicken enchilada soup in faith that the grocery store will have the ingredients for you to buy and that the stove will work come Friday afternoon.</div> <bR> <div>      In this culture, if you don't have faith, you're sunk.</div> <bR> <div>      Religious or spiritual faith is a particular kind of living <B>as if</B>.  This kind of faith involves committing to a path which promises to lead to a life of deep meaning and peace.   This is an especially dicey proposition.  You get to find out if your faith in snow on the mountain was a good choice as soon as you show up at the lodge.  You can only find out if your spiritual faith has any merit at the end of your life, when the cards have all been played. (Note 1)</div> <bR> <div>      I have come to see the fundamental faith commitment of Christianity as something like: <I><B>The most meaningful life is the life lived in sacrificial love.</B></I>  I'll unpack this more in another essay, but for now let it suffice to say that Jesus' life and Jesus' teaching can be summed up in that simple statement.  We Christians, then, commit to a life of sacrificial love because we have faith that this truly is the best way to live.  Sacrificial love is God's way of relating to creation, and so we trust that it should be our way of relating to it as well.  When I claim to be a Christian, I'm claiming that sacrificial love will be the measure of my life.</div> <bR> <div>      Without question, the single greatest gift of my trip through the dark night of depression and anxiety was coming face to face with the nature of my faith.  I had to admit that my life was not centered around a commitment to sacrificial love.  My life, rather, was centered around a mish-mash of conflicting faith convictions like:</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700b400000000.png" HEIGHT="12" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The most meaningful life is a life where I am admired as extraordinarily clever and successful.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The most meaningful life is a life where I get my way.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The most meaningful life is a life where I get to buy the stuff I want (without appearing to others that I'm materialistic) and still save enough money to feel secure.     </div> <div>                                                             </div> <div> And these are just three of the faith convictions that I've been able to identify (and that I'm willing to tell you about...)!  No telling how many other anxiety-ridden declarations are marching around in my soul.</div> <div>      </div> <div>      All of this is to say that I am constantly embroiled in a Texas death match between the Christian faith I claim to follow, and all the anxious faith commitments that I actually live out.  Is it any wonder that my faith seems so impotent at times?</div> <bR> <div>      And it doesn't help that religion and faith have such an ambivalent connection to one another.  The most important task of religion is to help people unpack the life of spiritual faith. For Christians, this means that true religion encourages us and supports us in our determination to live lives of sacrificial love.   Unfortunately some religious congregations get sidetracked and end up catering to our comforts and anxieties. (Note 2)     </div> <div>      </div> <div>      Christian faith is not about getting the religious rules right so that you can have a life of joy.  Christian faith is about living as if the life of sacrificial love is the meaningful way to live, no matter what life throws in your way.</div> <div> Questions for reflection:</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">I have said that Christianity's  core declaration is:  "The most meaningful life is the life lived in sacrificial love."  How does this sit with you?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">If someone were to follow you around for a week, what would they conclude you believe about how to have a meaningful life.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">How do your religious practices encourage you as you journey down the road of faith?  How do your religious practices distract you in this journey?</div> <div>      </div> <div> _____________________________</div> <bR> <div> Note 1:  My friend Lori read this and declared, "I beg to differ – experiences, although they fade, prove faith."  She raises a good point about how much weight we give our experiences when assessing faith.  Nonetheless, since research has shown that the simple prodding of an exposed brain with an electric probe can produce the deep sensation of God's presence, we are confronted with how unreliable our perceptions can be.</div> <bR> <div> Note 2:   Please be patient with me regarding my current struggles with "organized religion."  I'm told that Carlyle Marney once said something like, "Whatever God intended, surely it wasn't this."  I don't believe he was referring to the way we humans organize our religious lives, but I wonder if he wouldn't agree.  For instance, anyone who digs through the budgets of a dozen or so typical Christian congregations will make some interesting observations.  About 90% of the funds that many churches bring in are spent on the church members themselves. The money goes to hire professional staff to serve the members, to pay for heating and cooling to keep the members comfortable, to build beautiful rooms so the members can create a sense of awe for worship, to buy literature so the members can study.  Certainly most church members are willing to welcome anyone to partake of these good things, but little attention is given to the reality that those who most desperately need our attention are not likely to show up.  If we're not careful, our religion can become another way to avoid faith.  Although I don't have any detailed experience with other religions, I'd be willing to bet my Sunday afternoon nap that this dilemma is shared across the religious board. ( If anyone of a different religious faith is reading this, and can tell me about how budgets work in your congregations, I'd love to hear from you.)</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>