Faith Like a Rock

Faith. What is it, really? A religion? A belief? A religious conviction? The motivation to do “the right thing”? How does it work?

Give up? Maybe some practical applications of the word might help. For instance, in religious circles, it’s not uncommon to say we “live by faith”. A preacher might ask his congregation “So, do you have enough faith to believe _____?”, and fill in the blank with whatever the topic of the day may be. I’ve been exhorted from the pulpit to “share my faith”, “live by faith”, “increase my faith”, “depend on faith” - to mention but a few. And there’s that phrase that totally annoys me: “blind faith” - a useless, and rather insulting phrase— a religious oxymoron, IMHO.

Look up the word faith if you dare. Over 2 billion entries on Google! Two BILLION! And a quick check of a bible concordance records faith and its variants used over 700 times, and in the Gospels alone, 45 times! And for all our sakes in this brief blog post, we won’t going into the nuances of the various Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words that are translated as “faith”.

For one small word that we use frequently and in multiple contexts, it’s no wonder there’s a bit of confusion around the issue of faith; well, actually - a lot of confusion. Which brings us back to the initial question of how to define faith. If we cannot be clear about what faith is, what do we do when confronted with a very real desire to not only understand faith, but seek to be a person OF faith?

What is faith - really? And do I have faith? Do I have enough faith? Is there even such a thing as enough faith? How much is too little? And probably the most important question: Does faith make a difference in my life? Often, the greatest challenges to our life’s beliefs, to our core values, arise in the simplest of questions: and in recent weeks, this has been my own struggle: at its core, what is faith?

A quick look at Webster’s Dictionary has a few meanings: loyalty, fidelity to one’s promises; belief and trust in God, belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion; complete trust in something, an unshakeable conviction. These definitions are all well and good, but they fail to get us to the heart of the matter; these dry-bones definitions fail miserably in explaining how - for so many - faith has changed their lives.

For you see, I’ve come to realize that faith must be far more than just a conviction, or a decision we make. Faith must transcend the mind; it is far more than a thought- rational or otherwise. For those whose lives have been changed by faith, it has to be more. Head knowledge is all fine and good, but it does not lead to a transformed life.

And faith is not simply a nice warm feeling about God. Let’s be real: humans are fickle, and our passions unreliable at best. We are foolish if we believe that our lives will change simply because going to church on Sunday or working in a soup kitchen gives us “warm and fuzzy” feelings. Marriages, parenthood and faith (among other things) require far more than “warm and fuzzy”. When the going gets tough, many warm, fuzzy Christians abandon ship, disillusioned, saddened and frustrated with their religion. They abandon God, blaming Him for life’s circumstances.

Faith is not about what our minds declare is true or right, like religion often tells us. Faith is also not a feeling which will change as the wind blows, as some revival preachers might have us believe. Thoughts and feelings aren’t faith; they are transitory, like houses built on sand. Faith built on these things will fall down in the first major storm of life. (Matt. 7:26-27)

If not a decision, or a belief, or a feeling constitute faith, then what does? In my 60+ years as a committed believer in the Christian tradition, I have noted a common thread in the lives of those who have demonstrated deep, life-changing faith that has lasted throughout the years, in heartache, sickness, loss, betrayal, tragedy - you name it - one thing is common among all: every single person, including yours truly, has undergone at least one, if not several, personal, monumental, life-altering encounters with God. I’ve come to see and know, as sure as I know the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening, that it is only through such a divine encounter with God that we come to a place of deep faith - faith like a rock: unmoveable, unshakeable, withstanding all storms, all earthquakes. No matter what. Faith endures. Like a rock.

Look at the lives of the “saints” in this world - both formal and informal “saints”. Each can describe for you a moment in their lives when they experienced a Divine encounter, even though they didn’t always realize what was going on at the time. Some encounters are well known: St. Francis, St. Paul, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, C.S. Lewis, Mother Teresa. Other momentous encounters aren’t so dramatic or public: the alcoholic who has turned her life around after a personal encounter with God, waking up on the floor of her bathroom, the space transformed into a holy space for a few brief moments. Or an addicted teen whose life is changed when dragged to a Christian concert by a friend, who, against all rational thought and cultural indoctrination, recognizes the presence of God and responds to that Presence, that call. Or perhaps the middle-aged agnostic who experiences a momentous Divine encounter one day while crossing the street to his office after lunch - for no obvious or rational reason; or a wealthy business man who has a personal encounter with God on the 18th hole of the golf course one glorious sunny morning. All our ‘burning bush’ experiences are unique to each of us. Each different but oh! so very real.

When asked, it’s highly likely there will be nothing “special” about those moments to those of us looking in from the outside; but God met each one in a deeply personal space, within circumstances that were particularly personal and specific to them. For each, God chose a uniquely personal moment to reach out and transform them, from the inside out. Later when asked, almost invariably they will say: “I can’t explain it; I just know that I know that I know. God is real, and as a result of “x”, I am a different person. I’m changed.” That’s not religion, that’s a personal encounter.

The miracle is always in the responding. Each Divine encounter can either meet with resistance or downright hostility; or it can result in transformation and redemption. It’s always up to us; but be forewarned. It is not possible to outrun or hide from God. Sooner or later, we WILL encounter Him; the final question always is: when will we finally respond?

If faith is the result of a personal transformation in which God does the pursuing and we respond; there is also a paradox here: we were also created to pursue God. Everything in the human heart and soul longs for Divine connection, and has since the dawn of time. Created in His image, we seek to find that ‘Divine missing piece” of the puzzle that is uniquely ours; that sense of Divine-belonging that makes us feel whole, complete. And so we pursue God - though very often it doesn’t look like that at all. Instead, we pursue other “gods”; money, achievement, fame, security, love, thinking this must be it, the thing we’ve searched for, for so long. And yet if these are our “gods”, they will inevitably fall from grace, topple off their brass thrones, and sorely disappoint. And so we shift our search and seek out God in a different place, in a different “new thing”, and the searching cycle begins all over again. And it will continue until we respond to God’s pursuit, to His invitation for a holy encounter.

The paradox is that we are created to pursue God, and yet He is the one who does the pursuing. I like to consider it the Divine Dance, the dance of two lovers seeking one another in a dark wood, each searching, each calling out, each longing for the other… never satisfied until the chase is over, until the lovers are deeply embraced in love.

I can’t say it better than Fr. Richard Rohr: “God is humble and never comes if not first invited, but God will always find some clever way to get invited.” (emphasis mine) [1]

Faith isn’t something we can quantify, but it is an experiential event that transforms. If faith is that visceral, personal, transformed inner self that is deeply secure in the knowledge of God’s love, then there is no such thing as “enough faith”. As Jesus said, you simply need faith the size of a mustard seed (Matt. 17:20), an allegorical way of saying you simply need the tiniest amount sufficient to respond to God’s pursuing, to His ever out-reaching arms. Once we respond, our faith doesn’t grow so much as it solidifies into a rock of assurance and understanding, a deep conviction within that holds us close to the Divine One, in all circumstances, at all times.. Once we respond, we simply know that we know that we know. Once we respond, we enter into a relationship with our Divine Creator, and there is no looking back. Reality shifts, our inner being transforms and we receive daily what we’ve alway been longing for: a Divine Love that fills us up to overflowing, and meets every. single. need. we have— today, and tomorrow, and the next tomorrow- into eternity and forever.

[Rohr, R. Breathing Underwater, Chapter 6, p. 71. Franciscan Media, Cleveland OH. 2021. E-book version]