Relationship with God

Faith means embracing the uncomfortable place of uncertainty.

Over the past couple of days I have been sharing some of the lessons I have been learning from this moment in my life. The importance of the story people tell about you, and the fact that following Christ involves taking up a cross, have been two dawning understandings for me. Another lesson I have been learning is what faith actually means.

I have known intellectually what faith is about for many years, but I am discovering in a new way that faith requires a deep trust that doesn’t make intellectual sense.

Martin Luther King Jr. said:

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

No-one in their right mind would set foot on a staircase, not knowing where it leads, but that is exactly what Faith is about.

I found faith much easier when I thought I knew the general direction life was traveling, but now I find myself in a place where life could go in lots of different directions and I am discovering that faith and uncertainty kind of go hand in hand. This is actually a theme in the bible, but not one that I had particularly wanted to see.

My favourite verse is Proverbs 3:5-7 which says in the NIV:

Trust in the Lord with all your heartand lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,and he will make your paths straight.

Its fairly clear isn’t it! Faith means letting go of your own view of the world and trusting God’s view. The clearest picture I have of faith is that it is kind of like jumping off a cliff, trusting that someone will catch you: at least thats what it feels like.

In a moment in my life where the level of uncertainty feels higher than normal, there is a big part of me that wants to grab the steering wheel. I want to put my plans in place and believe that “God helps those who help themselves.” I keep running scenarios through my mind and looking for ways to alleviate the sense of uncertainty.

I can understand the drive towards fundamentalism, which seems to me to be an attempt to remove the uncertainty from a relationship with God, its just that the more I wrestle with faith, the more I discover that comfortable predictability doesn’t seem to be a phrase that describes God, the Holy Spirit or Jesus.

In my quiet time this morning I read Galatians 3:11 in the Message:

The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you.

Faith is responsive. It allows the initiative to be with God and is looking for his hand rather than trying to force his hand.

I think the main lesson I have been learning is just how uncomfortable faith can be. Its nice looking back on the moments of resolution, where God came through in the face of uncertainty but its just not much fun when you are in the place of uncertainty waiting for him to come through.

Faith means embracing the uncomfortable place of uncertainty.

I'd love to hear what you think...