Faith = Do Something

I’ll be brief in this post, as I’ve wanted the words of the guest authors to be the focus of this series. I’m so grateful to my friends, old and new, who came along on this all-too-brief journey through reimagining faith. As I mentioned in the introduction to the series, the diversity of voices, perspectives, and insights has been a rich feast.

Here are just a few things I will take from this series:

• Tony Jeck reminded me that the wonder of a life of faith is found in the tension, the complexity of unexpected things holding hands;
• Steve Austin showed me how to be transparent, raw, and honest in discerning between a lived faith and a hollow religiosity;
• Brian Fullford challenged me to reflect in a deep and meaningful way on just why faith is justified even when it proves nothing;
• Brent Neely encouraged me to embrace the divine mystery of faith that becomes more real only after words and explanations fail;
• Jen Showalter startled me wide awake with the truthful declaration of faith as an embodied small step;
• Craig Keen strengthened me with the actualization of a resurrected Jesus who retains his humiliation right along with his glorification.

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As I process the past month of just a few drops in the bucket of reimagining faith, I have become even more dissatisfied with an apologetic approach to faith. For years I’ve been disinterested with trying to logically argue any truth pertaining to faith. Now, I’m positively disdainful toward such a project.

This is likely due in part to Kierkegaard’s heavy influence on me, for I concur with him that were we to turn the problem of Christianity–and it is a problem–into an objective-philosophical argument, we would be forced to invent new categories to reality that would not make much sense.

The faith of the Christian, the faith I have in the resurrected person named Jesus of Nazareth, is not a philosophical puzzle. This particular and specific faith is not realized when I affirm a creedal proposition. It is not true only when proven.

Rather, faith in Jesus is something to do. It is something I must do. When I do something because of this faith, then it becomes a way of life to be witnessed.

Yes, this is paradoxical, but it is also wonderful.

It is transparently subjective, but it is honest.

It proves nothing, but it means everything to me.

It is unexplainable, but the mystery is real.

It is such an insignificant step, but in the small act the world is changed.

It requires humiliation, and it guarantees a glorification yet to come.

This is my faith. And I’m still reimagining it.

Better yet, I’m living it. Living it awkwardly, poorly, and with profound imperfection. But it is embodied in me somehow. And for now, that is enough.