Mike Paschall . com

We’ve become so obsessed with the hopeful fruits of our faith that we no longer recognize the value of being in the process of faith.  I think I’m saying what I want to say:  The process of exercising our faith is the righteous part… period!  Not that we get what we want, but the fact that we submit ourselves to the mystery and hope of God’s tangible involvement.  No one get’s everything they ask for… right?  I’m not even convinced that would be good for us.  But, we believe again, trust again, and submit ourselves again to the divine affair while believing that He is good and trustworthy, even though I may be disappointed and unsatisfied in receiving what I exercised faith for.  I seriously doubt any of us would respect a process that reduces faith to a religious formula.  We forget, that like us, He also has a will .  He is not a divine vending machine subject to our coins and selections.

I like Richard Rohr’s take on this topic:  “Our faith is not in words.  Our faith is in a person.  Our faith is in God, who is revealing the divine self to us in Christ and in the lives of the Body of Christ.  The word calls us into a personal dialogue, not a slavish idealization of words, not a rigid love affair with ideas.  That is fundamentalism.  The scriptures call us into a personal struggle like Jacob’s.  He wrestled with the angel of Yahweh (Genesis 32:24-31).  In that personal involvement, in our personal wrestling match with the mystery of God, we come to faith.  Faith is not just another competing ideology.  It is more a process than a conclusion, more a way of relating than a way of explaining, more a wrestling match than a classroom lesson.”   from The Great Themes of Scripture

-MDP-