There's a great scene in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Near the end of the film, a villain shoots Indiana's father, forcing our hero to take a perilous journey through a booby-trapped complex to recover a magical artifact that will save his father's life.The last challenge he faces is a gaping chasm. With no way to the other side and his only clue an obscure reference to proving one's faith by leaping, he closes his eyes and steps off the edge. Based on what he sees, there is no reason to believe he will survive...but it is all he can do.
It is this view of faith--a blind leap--that seems to pervade current discussions. Whether in conversation, films, or the popular mind, faith is seen as something that one does "just because," despite all evidence to the contrary. Often there is no rhyme or reason because the preeminent concern is that one believes in something. Faith, many say, is not supposed to make sense or exist for any reason. It is supposed to be blind.
It just is.
While there are perhaps facets of this view that make sense to me, it also seems to be a bit of a sad place to live. Faith for faith's sake is a primarily empty experience. It's like trying to lie to yourself over and over again just to get by.
No matter what the movies may tell us, I can't believe that simply "having faith" is enough.
I think we have to have faith in something, as Jesus says in John 5:2-4
"The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."
How different this is than blindly leaping off the edge or forcing oneself to believe in something without reason. How different from the type of faith many assume to be standard.
The Christian believes because they have heard the voice of the shepherd--of Christ--and respond to it. That voice can be heard in many different ways, but it provides an "evidence" that ensures we never blindly step into the dark alone.
This is faith.
2 comments:
Hi Josh,
All so true. Have you read Francis Schaeffer's "The God Who Is There" and "God is There and He is Not Silent?" Schaeffer deals brilliantly with the difference between our society's sad sense of needing to "leap" for our faith and the Christian reality of faith in a Person we can know and trust completely. I think you'd enjoy it.
Blessings to you, dear brother in Christ.
In Him,
Angie
Josh,
I couldn't have said this better myself....wait, who am I kidding...you always say things better than me!
From someone who deals with evidence often, in a rather tangible way, it is interesting to note that evidence generaly has three facets. Firstly, it is real, tangible, verifiable. Secondly, it is persuasive, and along those lines, thirdly, it tends to prove something.
Isn't that an exciting thought? That with faith, acting upon it, using it, living it, we experience real, tangible verifiable evidence of God in our life, which we can use to persuade others, and prove to them, through our lives, the existence of an awesome, loving, and totaly cool God!
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