Faith

Hi! It’s been a while but here I am again. I think it’s quite funny that the last blog, written on the 19th January, was titled “Gap”. I had no idea when I wrote that, that there would be a gap before I wrote the next blog! It was, somehow, prophetic.in its own way. I didn’t plan the gap and I wouldn’t have chosen the gap, but that there was a gap proves that life doesn’t always go as we would like or predict. And I certainly wouldn’t have chosen what filled that gap. Actually I never thought I’d catch the virus, and if I did, that I would be asymptomatic. But then I don’t always get things right! There are things in life that cause us to take stock, to really think about how we look at the world, and life, and everything we do. There are times when experiences cause us to reframe our thinking. And sometimes that’s really, really hard. Sometimes life causes us to re-think what we thought we knew, what we thought we understood and what we thought we believed about life, about God and about faith. I did a lot of thinking while I was unwell. I found myself in a place I didn’t think I would be and a place I didn’t want to be. And a place in which the future was uncertain. I didn’t know which way the illness was going to go. Ordinarily I enjoy a good health. I keep pretty healthy and fit. I don’t have any underlying health issues. I rarely go to the doctor. And yet, as I lay in bed, I understood that it counted for nothing. I also knew that there were people praying for me. Lots of people all over the world it turned out! And I was, and am, very grateful for that. But…what did it mean as I lay in bed? Would it make any difference? The truth is I know of people who were very much like me: enjoyed good health, kept themselves fit, expressed faith in God and yet who did not survive the illness caused by COVID-19. It caused me to think about what faith is and what it means. And it turns out I had some reframing to do. What could I rely on? What is the unchanging truth? How do I exercise faith in so much uncertainty? If I want to know the answer to these things, the place I must go is to the cross. The cross is the greatest and fullest revelation of God and who he really is. Everything else I might know or believe about God must be seen through the truth of the cross. And what the cross shows me is the height, length, breadth and depth of God’s love. It shows me that I cannot be separated from God’s love and that I am loved beyond my imagining. My reframing challenged me to put my faith, not in the things God might do for me, not in the things that things others can do for me, but in the character of God as he shows me in the cross. My faith has been challenged over the past few weeks, but in the process of wrestling with life and death and God, my faith has come to rest in the truth of the cross and God’s great and magnificent love. So I’m wondering…how’s your faith?