Faith is Dangerous

There are a lot of decisions in life, and some options that are so monumental words just don’t do credit to descriptions. Few people make major decisions over night, it’s usually a slow erosion of ideas, events, circumstances, or just a recognition that your lifestyle just isn’t getting it done. It’s a Dr. Phil question of, “And how is that working out for you?”

For most, it’s easier to live in denial. The self-deception that some day things will change, even though you’re not going to change, is wide-spread in America these days. Somehow we’ve come to foolishly believe that it’s them that need to change- not us. Ah, how the ego does a job on our lives.

For way, way too many years I wrestled with my religious denominational roots. And then one day it became clear, I had to change. Me! My denomination was doing well, but I was struggling with the need to do things they told me weren’t permissible. Hey, it was simply raising my hands in a worship setting. It’s not like I wanted to break-dance or stage dive.

Every year since that day in 1986 has been one of change. But as we close out this year wherein I ran with the ancient desert fathers and mystics old and new, I’ve realized I’ve been done in. I have been greatly chaged over the last twelve months. Someone more than moved my cheese: they moved the house! Someone loaded it up, foundation and all, and carted it off. And, here I stand under the open skies, depending upon God more than ever.

As Marcus Borg has said, “For many, faith becomes the struggle to believe the church’s teaching despite the fact that it does not make very good sense to us.” I am not going to deal with any specifics that might hinder your faith before a bridge from here to there is built. But, on a conceptual level, I interpreted the Bible as my denomination instructed me: the fundmentalist literal-factual approach.

And then all of a sudden I saw something I wasn’t looking for. If I am TOLD that everything in the Bible is factual, literal, and beyond question, what’s to believe? What faith is needed? I just do what I’m told: no faith required. However, to take the historical-metaphorical approach is dangerous isn’t it? Absolutely, and that’s where one needs to start calling on faith: developing a relationship with the Holy Spirit for discernment and wisdom.

For me, I’ve taken the option that requires the most amount of faith. After all, I am a protestant (still) and therein I am exercising my “priesthood of the believer” rights that Martin Luther gave me.”