In the Beginning.........Faith!

"Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love."
- Erich Fromm

The principle of Faith is foundational. It underlies humanities relationship to creation. It provides context for experience and firmament for purpose. If love is the fuel that powers the machinery of human interaction, then Faith is the engine. Fuel with no engine is just so much toxic liquid poured out on the ground. The thirsty earth soaks it right up however all that is accomplished is to contaminate the water supply.

This is the sixth Christmas season since the love of Christ penetrated down into the bleak despair of my cold dead heart and resurrected eternal hope. It is the sixth Christmas season to come since faith was birthed in me. Faith has stretched and grown in me as it has stretched and grown me. In this the love of Christ has not only endured but strengthened. It has become so intertwined in the fabric of my construction that I cannot accurately remember the former composition of my person. I am so sure that God has me in His hands and is lovingly sheltering me that it is hard to remember what it was like to exist with the absence of this faith.

I know that I had rudimentary faith before Christ. It is impossible to function in the world and not have some measure of faith. Devoid of all faith a person would be left to sit terrified in uncertainty unable to move. Faith is built into us, like the Hypothalamus. We are largely unaware of it. It exists and functions down beneath our conscious processes. Just like when we are going to lift something we don’t often consciously go through the process of telling our muscles to contract etc. When we make decisions we rarely purpose to engage our faith. When we lift weights to build our muscles we at times may concentrate to make them work. So it is when we exercise our faith. Both will grow when increasing pressure is applied to them.

I guess the key here is what do we have faith in? I may have faith that I can climb the Empire State building in my boxers while singing the Star Spangled Banner but watching me try would be really entertaining, or disgusting depending on your perspective. To bring it back into relevant context. Hitler may have truly had faith that exterminating the Jews was Gods will. He exercised the principle of faith in attempting to carry out his task based on his faith. However he neglected to apply a primary governing foundational principle, namely an accurately interpreted and correctly applied principle of love.


Another interesting thing to consider when thinking about faith is this; we know that we love God because He first loved us. I wonder if we have faith in God because He first had faith in us. I mean it’s obvious that He has faith in us. He gave us the world.

This brings up another point. It amazes me to think that while I was lost God was busy exercising His faith through love by drawing me back to Him. My salvation was an act of His faith accomplished by the application of His love. In fact all of creation is an act of faith for God.

So at the beginning of all this is God, who in faith, formulates a plan so charged with supernatural purpose that to us humans it appears stark raving, insanely, stupidly inadequate. God however has such great faith that He takes on the low form of a man. Then wrapped up in such an insufficient package,(I mean look at you), he proceeds to restore history to its intended course, defeating the evil of the world at the same time. If that weren’t inconceivable enough He chooses other insufficient meat bags like us to carry the task forward. And what does He give us as a tool? Love! Now if you didn’t see the need for faith in your life before you read this I sure hope that your eyes are open now. You need great faith to believe that the love that is inside of you can come outside and produce cosmic change. But it can, it has and it always will.

So let me encourage you today as the celebration of the anniversary of the day that Faith was birthed anew into the world approaches. You have access to everything you need to perform the Herculean tasks that God has given you. I mean look what He did with some dirt and his spirit. You may not be much to look at but you are a miracle just the same. You can do more than you realize with the love He has given you. The love is like the dirt. It takes faith to believe that it has potential. But with faith to move it forward God can come and imbue it with life and then the miraculous is only a breath away.
No matter your outlook and in spite of your IN-look, everything you require has already been bestowed. You are a walking, breathing, miracle of creation and the same power that made you is in you. So in the language of the age, in which we live, get crackalackan. Give your faith a good workout, God is on your side.