Friday, November 28, 2014 “It’s funny. People who don’t believe always think they are smarter than people who do.’ And people who do believe often think that those who don’t are somehow deficient. The truth is that the evidence of life adds up in different ways for different people. Believers bet their lives that what faith holds is true. Those who don’t believe are betting their lives on whatever it is that they do or don’t believe is true. If we would live our faith in winsome ways, stand firm in our convictions without judging others, and demonstrate a quality of life that is unexplainable and beyond reason, some of those ‘others’ might take a different view on things. “A spate of recent books had declared that God was a fool’s notion, hocus pocus, a panacea for weak minds.” That sentence appears in Mitch Albom’s book, Have A Little Faith. * The book offers options about this... Now here’s the deal: If our faith allows no critique, if the ‘magic’ of religion takes precedent over a life lovingly and well lived, if people are scarred to use reason and talk with those who think differently, that kind of faith can become the kind that some like to talk about and put down. The man most of us know only as ‘St. Augustine,’ took pen and papyrus and wrote a synthesis of Greek philosophy and early Christian theology that as one scholar put it, “Has endured for just at two thousand years.” ** We have able thinkers in the world of faith, and take a life like Mother Teresa and those like her and you have a confounding of almost every argument that would put faith down. Combine best thinking with a way of life that blesses and makes a measurable difference for good, and you have our best argument for believing. There are good and bad religious beliefs. May the day come when the best of what faith teaches is learned and practiced by those who represent insights and convictions that make life better. “Show me how your life is different,” said one husband to one wife, “and I’ll consider your beliefs more carefully.” She did, and so did he. Maybe we spend too much energy defending, and too little incarnating. A more affirmative approach to the varieties of religious experience might result in strengthening one’s own faith, and present a more attractive option for others to consider. Always love, always, Keith * Sometimes I quote from a book I’m reading at the moment, and some of those ‘moments’ last a long time! ** Dr. Boone Bowen. Our hope and prayer is that your Thanksgiving day was one easy to be thankful for, and if not, that you found a way anyway...
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 12:34:59 +0000
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