Tuesday, 28 May, 2002

The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.



BELIEF

I find it sad to consider that belief has become a scary word, because at its Greek root, "to believe" simply means "to give one's heart to." Thus, if we can determine what it is we give our heat to, then we will know what it is we believe. But the word "belief" has been impoverished; it has come to mean a head-over-heart intellectual assent. When people ask, "What do you believe?" they are usually asking, "What do you think?" I have come to see that my education, even my religious education, left me with a faulty and inadequate sense of religious belief as a kind of suspension of the intellect. Religion, as I came to understand it, was a primitive relic that could not stand up to the advances made in our understanding of human psychological development or the inquiry of higher mathematics and modern sciences.

Some folks say that if you want to find out what a person believes, look at their life. Some may say "Jesus is Lord of my life," but then it is quite obvious that other things and/or people rule as Lord. Dan Erlander in an booklet he wrote years ago called "Baptized We Live" drew a picture of a man on his knee asking a woman to marry him. He made the comment that with that answer, their lives would change dramatically. "To give one's heart to" is to share your life with another. To hold the belief that Jesus is Lord changes all things, we stay the same people, we use our gifts and our intellect, we engage the world and look at things critically, but the very core of our lives becomes attached to one thing. That one thing begins to shape us and direct us along the pathway of our lives. For example, if I want to hold an office and that is at the very center of my will to live, that "want" will influence and dominate everything else in my day.



Connection: To hold a belief in this day demands that we think and feel and stay connected to the world around us. Nothing can hurt us more than thinking that "believing" means we take something "hook-line-and-sinker." In fact I would suggest that throughout this day we each take a look at what we let rule our lives even as we claim to call other things "lord."



Lord God, in the very beginning of our lives you endow us with great gifts and you invite us to explore our world and share our gifts and time and talents with others. In setting us free for such a life you also promise to abide with us at all times. Encourage us as we stumble so that we may trust that you are present with us as we continue on within the life you have given us knowing that you will be and always have been the Lord of all hopefulness. Amen