Well it's been a testing couple of days but cheerful nonetheless. So, what is actually the most significant thing about me then? Well, it's not what music I like, it's not how clever I am, and it's not what I look like either. It's what I believe. So this second post is all about my faith. Just the other day a girl asked me, 'What is it to be Christian, what do you get, does it mean you believe a big man in the sky who made the universe?'. I said to her that having a faith like mine, is more like trust in a friendship. To a total stranger to God that's the best I can put, the closest you have experienced is like trust or confidence in someone else. She went onto say, ' well we all know that trust is easily broken don't we, and if faith is just like trust than surely anyone could break this faith you speak so highly of''. In a way she was right - faith and trust are two very similar things, but she was wrong about the next thing she said.
'Trust takes years to build and seconds to break, and forever to repair'.
Everything we do relies on trust. Everything we do relies on someone or something doing something what we expect of them or it to do. On a larger scale in a complicated system if only one part of a wider trust is broken the whole body doesn't work properly or even work at all. According to the dictionary trust is having confidence or faith in something. I think it's a fair point to say; if you trust someone, that you have faith in that person. So, in some ways is faith or a faith(religion) the same as trust? I wondered more as to whether this had any relevance on my Christian faith.
One thing I do know is that a faith does take a long time to build it is not an instant thing, much like trust.
So faith like trust surely needs alot of time. Someone asked me the other day yet another hard question, no it wasn't maths or physics! Someone asked me, 'What makes you a Christian?' - in quite an accusing manner. I thought stunned for a little while and said, 'I have faith in God', in a very classic and bold fashion. Then the person asked, 'How do you get this faith then?' he continued, 'Do you go to church, do you do this, do you do that'. Part of me wanted to say a quite typical yet to them an unusual response of, 'no you don't have to go to church everyweek, you don't have to sing hymns and watch songs of praise for crying out loud'.
However, bar the songs of praise part, I did say, 'Going to church, regularly'. The truth of the matter is you don't have to do anything, but doing something sure does help.
One thing that always does and probably always will bother me is when people go to church once a year at Christmas or have been once or twice and claim to be Christian. Here's the dirty little secret, faith is like trust, you cannot simply flick a switch, it needs time to happen, and it doesn't occur overnight. If you can't trust someone you don't know, then how can you have faith in a God you never hear, see, listen or go to. Trust is only formed in a long lasting relationship - fact. Often, the more you see a person the greater your trust in them, it's the same with faith, the more you do or more you go the more you get. What do you give to a friend to gain their trust? Time, attention and many other things and these same things are needed to truly have a faith.
Ok then, so I must be selling it really well, but what about the part of trust being so fragile and so breakable, is faith so fragile in the same way? When I think back to times when I've lost trust in a friend, I think of an incident or a change, the key point is that something happened for me to lose that trust. Something I thought would never change, did change. And in fact it is a two way affair, I'm sure sometimes I have done something to lose the trust of someone else, someone along the line lost faith in me.
So can we say right, faith is like trust it takes time and attention and care to build, however trust is easily breakable and it breaks when we do something wrong or we change, but faith is not like this aspect of trust. My faith with God - or friendship if you like - is great I because you see I am the only person who can do something or change or choose not to spend time with God if you like. Well then why is it only I can break this relationship of trust? The good news is, that God never changes, he never lets us down, no matter how often I try to blame him for something we do to ourselves. Yesterday, today and forever God is the same and we will trust in him . In the end, yes faith is still a fragile thing, but once you have it only we can choose whether to break it or not, trust is weaker than faith in God because ultimately God never leaves us, ever, it is only us who choose to leave him.
Afterthought
So I'm going to assume you must be thinking, what on earth is he talking about ( or words to that effect) or how can I meet or know God of all things (something physically untouchable) but like a friend or a person? How can God never leave me if I can't see him if the first place, how can I leave him? God thought the very same thing how can my people know me better. Stay tuned for the next installment on finding God.
