5 Minute Reflection #14.07: Faith, unmasked

Every day for the last few months I have posted an affirmation of faith via Facebook and Twitter. For the first several weeks it read like, "This day is a gift from God. Let me live like I believe it." In more recent weeks the affirmation contains a tiny but significant difference, "This day is a gift from God. Let me love like I believe it." This shift is simply an acknowledgement of the first and greatest commandments, "Love God. Love Others."

You might ask, how sincere can these affirmations be? Is it really possible to live and love consistently and with such a spirit of gratitude day in and day out? Could these sayings be a sort of mask? Could I be hiding my doubts and uncertainties?

Here's how this works. Of course I have doubts and uncertainties from time to time. No thinking person of faith has no doubts. No honest, thinking person of faith should claim to have no doubts. That would be a mask. Billy Graham has said, "“Doubts are a normal part of life. We doubt things on earth, so its easy to doubt things of God.” In fact, doubts are necessary to the definition of faith. Logically, if we can prove something beyond all doubt, faith is unnecessary. So faith is a choice, a decision that what is believed and hoped for is more compelling and of greater value than the alternative presented by doubt.

Lee Strobel says, “For many Christians, merely having doubts of any kind can be scary. They wonder whether their questions disqualify them being a follower of Christ. They feel insecure because they’re not sure whether it’s permissible to express uncertainty about God, Jesus, or the Bible." What happens when we give in to that fear and put on the "no doubts" mask? Strobel says, "they keep their questions to themselves and inside, unanswered." Their unanswered questions "grow and fester . . . until they eventually succeed in choking out their faith.”

There it is. No masks. No pretending that I never, ever have any doubts. Even so, I choose faith and I choose to affirm it every day.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)

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A useful although relatively inactive site about dealing with doubt is here: Dealing With Doubt

"This day is a gift from God. Let me live like I believe it."  is borrowed from Mark Elfstrand, former host of The Morning Ride on WMBI-FM. Mark used to sign off every morning saying ""This day is a gift from God. Let's live like we believe it." You can find Mark's blog here: The Way WE Work

5 Minute Reflection #14.05: Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

Harriet Tubman passed away 101 years ago today. We know that she was born between 1819 and 1825, but we don't know exactly when. Tubman herself didn't know. Having been born into slavery, she was a nobody. Of her own origins she said, "I grew up like a neglected weed - ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it."

Tubman escaped slavery and made at least nineteen missions to rescue more than 300 slaves through the network of abolitionists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She helped John Brown recruit men for the raid on Harpers Ferry.

During the American Civil War, Tubman was a cook and nurse for the Union Army, and later an armed scout and spy. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, guiding the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. 

In the post-war era Tubman worked with Susan B. Anthony in the struggle for women's suffrage. A lifelong Christian, Tubman was heavily involved with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Although she spent most of her life in poverty, going mostly unpaid for her service to others and with no meaningful compensation for her service to the Union Army, she eventually owned a parcel of land which she gave to the church in 1903 for a home for "aged and indigent colored people."

By the time of her death in 1913, she had become recognized as one of the greatest civilian leaders in American history with stature equal to names like Paul Revere and Betsy Ross. She was buried with full military honors in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

"I'm going to hold steady on you and you've got to see me through." - Harriet Tubman's Prayer

5 Minute Reflection #14.01: A Perfect Day For A Funeral

Every once in a while the distinctions blur between symbols and the things they represent. Metaphors materialize and ordinary events take on transcendent meaning. I attended a funeral this morning. It was a perfect day for it - heavy snow showers, a blustery wind and bitter cold. Colorless buildings, roads, cars, and pedestrians were dimly seen through the falling snow under a canvas painted in shades of white and gray stretched from horizon to horizon. It was the kind of day that makes mourning easy. It was also Ash Wednesday, for Christians an observance and reminder of human mortality - ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;for dust you are and to dust you will return. (Genesis 3:19 NIV)

Yet, we believe that this is not the end of the story. Although we live in the shadow of the winter and death, we look ahead with hope to the of end of winter, to the Resurrection and ultimately to a "new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade." (1 Peter 1:3-4)

My Mother The Pilgrim

My Mom was a many things to many people, but she was more things to me than she was to anybody else.  She was a bundle of contradictions, at times in a deep and protracted struggle with her disappointments, at other times miraculously generous, going far, far out of her way to help and inspire others.  She was a child of the Roaring 20s, a teenager of the Great Depression and a young adult of the Greatest Generation.  She grew up in a world that told strong, smart women like her, with great and varied aptitudes for science, math, arts, and letters, that she should learn shorthand and bookkeeping.  After World War II, she left her familiar surroundings of Northeast Ohio and made it on her own in graphic arts in Chicago, and in staffing and recruiting in New York, where she became a Mother.

We moved to Ohio for a while, to live with my grandparents.  She continued to work in staffing and recruiting in Canton and Cleveland.  Somewhere along the way, her pilgrimage took a different direction.  I don't know whether it was a conversion or an awakening, or what she would call it, but it was a clear turning point.  She quit the personnel business and went to work for the First Presbyterian Church of Akron, while also becoming heavily involved with the North Canton Baptist Temple.  Soon, we moved back to New York, where she went to work for the United Church Board for World Ministries, then the Pension Board of the American Baptist Convention, and finally the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, whence she retired after 16 years of service.

Throughout her journey, her vocation, avocations, ideas and attitudes had the hallmarks of a pilgrim's progress. She believed in sacrifice, providing more for me and for others than for herself.  She believed in heroes, famous and obscure, of the world stage, of the silver screen and of everyday life, from Dwight Eisenhower, to the characters played by John Wayne, to her brother Ray and her uncle Tom.  She knew exile.  In broken relationships, untapped talents, and evaporated dreams, she knew what it was like to live far apart from one's mortal aspirations.  She was passionate, especially when she became interested in a cause.  She was passionate about doing the right thing, and doing the right thing the right way.  She believed in justice, inclusion, and equality. In my earliest recollection of a conversation about race, she taught me not to follow my Grandmother's example when, speaking from ignorance, she used the "N word" to refer to a neighbor's household help.

Ultimately, my Mom's pilgrimage was grounded in inspiration. This was hard to see for those who only knew her in her later years, which were often times of suffering and confusion, but I know the spark that was there before and that never went out.  She believed in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in his Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  I can think of nothing that would please her more than to acknowledge this truth.  She was inspired by the words of the scriptures, the great preachers of the Gospel, and the hymns.  For her, the reality and mystery of the Trinity could not be better described than the words of three hymns. Of God the Father, in Martin Luther's words, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, a bulwark never failing!"  Of God the Son, in Joseph Scriven's words, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!" And perhaps most deeply, of God the Holy Spirit, through the words of Edwin Hatch:

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

Mom, you have long ago departed this imperfect life. You pilgrimage here is complete. Now you are with Him in Eternity.  May those you left behind, run as good a race, as noble a pilgrimage as you did.  Thank you, Mom!  We will see you soon.

Doubt, Imagination, and Hope

I doubt it.

A series of essays based on “21 Things to Give Up For Lent”.  These thoughts are every bit as much about things that I would hope to improve in my own journey as they are offerings to any who stop by this blog.

Topic #21: Doubt

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)

Can we truly give up doubt?  No.  Should we?  No.  Every one of us, even the most rational and analytical people we know, lives in a state of permanent tension between doubt and faith.  Some of us more readily acknowledge this tension than others.  For all of us, doubt can at times be a debilitating paralytic, and at other times, a whetstone on which we may sharpen our ideas.

In our everyday lives, we make certain assumptions about what will happen today, tomorrow, next week, or next year.  We live hopefully, buying cars and houses on long-term credit, thinking years, even decades ahead.  We enroll in degree programs that will take years to complete.  Our professional sports teams sign athletes to multi-year contracts, hoping for long periods of good health and high performance.  We plan for our children’s educations, our own retirement and other long term goals.  These are all expressions of faith and hope in the unseen future.  We expect that tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, will come and go without mishap or tragedy. At the same time, we acknowledge the element of doubt in all of these things.  We buy insurance.  We have fire and tornado and earthquake drills at school and at work.  We hope for the best, but plan for the worst.  Deep down, we know that every tomorrow will not bring the best of all possible outcomes in all areas of our lives.  We hope that life will go according to plan, but we doubt it.

We who profess faith in God live with one foot in the present and the other in eternity.  We may seem to have few doubts about the ultimate questions, but to be completely free of doubt is neither possible nor wise.  Without doubt, we cannot adequately define and refine our faith.  Without doubt, we can become lazy, making no effort to understand and defend our faith.  The Apostle Peter wrote, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (I Peter 3:15, NIV)  Doubt does not weaken faith.  Doubt challenges us to understand what we believe and to be prepared to explain and defend our faith.  Doubt makes faith stronger.

For those who do not believe in God, those who believe that this life is all there is, I would commend to you as well, the value of doubt.  Do not be so sure of the results of your reasoning that you are unwilling to investigate and understand the reasonable conclusions of faith.  Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, said "It was the evidence from science and history that prompted me to abandon my atheism and become a Christian."  Let your reason lead you where it will, not where your current faith in previous arguments tells you where it will go.  Hold on to your legitimate doubts until they are outweighed by something else.  At the same time, listen with your heart, even with your imagination.  As C.S. Lewis said, “Reason is the natural order of truth, but imagination is the organ of meaning.”

Therefore do not give up doubt, but do give up being ruled by doubt.  Doubt itself is not an answer. Doubt drives us toward better answers.  Let it be the adversary in your inner court of reason; but when it has made its case, let it be done.  Let doubt be still when what you believe has been thoroughly tested and you have become able to give the reason for the hope that you have.

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