For years I have loved watching Jeopardy…it’s a family thing. I can remember yelling my answers – never in the form of a question – fighting over who said it first. Good times! Some times.
Recently, Alex asked one contestant what they would do with their winnings. One contestant replied, “I have always been intrigued by faith, all kinds of faiths. What people believe and how they believe…so I would like to go to Jerusalem, Bali, Rome, India and some other places to see all about faith.” So I hit my buzzer and rang in, “What is not sure about his plan Alex?”
What is faith? What causes belief? The heart of it all is TRUST in the one believed. That TRUST leads to a deep and abiding LOVE. It is not faith in a place. While they may be great destinations or touchstones of spiritual experience, they are not the real deal. The real deal is faith in God, creator, all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, immortal, all-loving…who spared nothing to be known by us and loved by us. This is the object of our Faith….this is what we believe. It is this that is the foundation of our TRUST. It is in this communal and personal relationship that we hope.
I do agree with the Jeopardy contestant in this context. Faith and belief take us on an incredible journey. The longest and shortest one at the same…it is about 10 to 14 inches…a journey from the head to the heart. Faith, Hope and Love…great journey to the heart of God.
Here is our challenge as believers: Are we believable? When someone encounters us, are we a threshold to their encounter with Jesus? Does their trust in us lead to a trust in the promises of God? This is our mission as disciples…to be His reflection.
PS. Praying for you Alex! #beatcancer
1 John 4:7-21
God’s Love and Christian Life.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.17In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us.
If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Jim I look fwd to your morning thoughts. Unk Mike