Faith & trust

When I think of the word ‘faith’ in our modern context (especially in a modern religious context), I tend to think of it as meaning: ‘proper beliefs’. It’s a logical left-brain thing that one can either get right or wrong. Faith, in this sense, involves effort. Mental fortitude. This kind of faith is a faith that excludes and walls off. It can easily turn into a game of who’s in and who’s out? OUR faith is correct while THEIRS... isn’t.

This isn’t helpful. This kind of faith isn’t the kind that we see in Christ. 

There’s one word that I find works better than ‘faith’ and points to the gospel-based meaning of the word. That word is...

Trust.

Faith in God has nothing to do with right thinking. In fact, if you find yourself up in your head, you’re likely not in a place of faith, but one of figuring-out. Which is fine for certain things like bridge architecture and account management. But when we reach the end of ourselves, there’s only one option...

Trust. 

Now... This can’t be forced. It cannot be manipulated. Authentic faith (trust) cannot come from the ego/individual self. It’s impossible. Faith comes from God. It’s something that’s imputed to us from a Divine source. 

Faith is a passive thing. It’s a full-on trust-fall. And trust-falls don’t make any sense. To put your physical well-being in the hands of another? Nonsense. 

But this is what faith is. Trust in a divine love that’s bigger than anything that we could ever imagine. A love that sees us through the highest of highs, the lowest of lows, and everywhere else in between. From our first heartbeat to our last and beyond. 

Grace & Godspeed,
Jonas

P.S. I’m not sure if you read my note about the Pope the other day, but here’s a fun follow-up to it that I read earlier.