For Christians: How Does Faith Bless You?

How my faith blesses me:


I enjoy conversing with people about their faith, and while I may disagree with their theology, I often can totally relate to how faith works in our hearts and lives. I think that too often we get off into how we intellectually disagree and too little affirm the spirituality that we share. I have come to treasure Christ. It's a bit hard to put into words or to find words adequate to express it - but as I'm talking to other believers, they seem to know, relate and understand, even when I'm failing to really express it. Whether Catholic or Baptist, Fundamentalist or Liberal, Lutheran or Orthodox.


There are so many aspects, all different and all just different ways of looking at exactly the same thing... In a lot of ways, these things are all the same thing - just looked at from a different perspective, labeled differently:


Presence. "Lo, I am with you always." "He is the Immanuel" (that means "God with you"). This is the single most powerful aspect of my faith. I live in the constant awareness of His presence; not just in some locational sense but here - for me. I once memorized that "Footprints" poem. "Lo, although I walk through the valley of death, I fear nothing because You are with me...." When I was a little boy, I had surgery (long story, doesn't matter). I remember meeting the surgeon and noting that he didn't even know my name (called me Josh, I think) and I certainly didn't know him. I was old enough to realize I could die.... and yet, even as just a little blonde/blue boy, I had peace. I remember being taken down the hall toward the surgical ward..... and waiting in this prep room..... FIGHTING the impulse to fall asleep..... aware I may never wake up, never see my family again.... but being at peace, because JESUS was there, right next to me, loving me. I might wake up in the hospital, I might wake up in heaven - either way, Jesus would be with me and it would be okay.


Loved. The concept of LOVE (agape) is the starting point, the hub, the centerpiece of the entire Christian religion. Everything in the Christian religion springs from and comes back to this point: God loves us. The unconditional, no-matter-what LOVE of God for me. Even when I can't stand me, God loves me. I feel that always. It is the one thing in life I KNOW. It's extremely affirming and renewing and life-giving. John 3:16, 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:10. BTW, this point is what tends to lead me to love others (it's a contagious aspect of Christianity, for me).


Family/Relationship. Christianity is all about our RELATIONSHIP with God, and how that impacts our relationships with others and with ourselves. God calls Himself "Our Father." He calls us "My son, My daughter." It's a living, loving, abiding, daily, on-going, REAL relationship with the living, loving, abiding REAL God. When I pray, I sometimes call God "Abba" (Galatians 4:5, Romans 8:15) - it means "Daddy." And the more I know that (relational "know" not didactic "know"), the more it seems to impact how I relate to myself and to others. Forgiveness is easier (and perhaps eventually automatic?) when we know we are forgiven, acceptance is easier (and perhaps eventually automatic?) when we know we are accepted. When we HAVE love, we can GIVE love... This gives me a profound sense of community, connection, family.... Christians are a family (we may not all be nice, we may not all agree, there are crazy Aunt Zeldas as in all families, but WE are FAMILY).... I belong to something powerful, beautiful, larger than me, giving me context and relationship.


Peace. This is hard to put into words. There is, of course, that objective peace - the end to the war - that Jesus secured for us on the Cross. Romans 5:1-11. But it isn't just objective and historic, it's subjective and present and personal. "The peace that passes all understanding," the Bible says somewhere. I've known this for a long time, but it's beginning to grow some deep roots. My hand is in His hand. I could give separate things about JOY and COMFORT but they are really just different ways of looking at the same thing. "Joy is peace dancing, peace is joy at rest."


And I appreciate Christianity's impact on my life.... KNOWING how much God loves me (a poor, misable sinner) makes it easier (I hope eventually automatic) for me to love. KNOWING His forgiveness definately makes it more natural, easier to forgive. KNOWING how He embraces people of all genders, brains, backgrounds makes it easier, more natural for me to do the same. Christianity has also impacted me to be more humble, less self-centered, more embracing.

There are surprising ways it impacts me, too. I came to know and appreciate music in a new way because of Christianity - singing hymns, learning to read music and play instruments so as to sing in the church choir and participate in worship. It's even lead me to enter many an art museum to explore how artists have expressed their faith. I have a whole artsy side to me in large part because of my faith. I took a number of history classes in my undergrad years in response to my faith, because I wanted to understand the historical context of Christianity - I don't think I would have chosen any history classes as electives otherwise, I would have restricted myself to math and science as much as possible.

And of course, it adds a whole, deep, rich, shared dimension to my relationship with my wife-to-be.



For ME, faith isn't about my somehow satisfying God by jumping through a bunch of hoops, it's about what HE did for me. For ME. Try reading the Passion Story in the Bible and put your own name in there whenever the crowd or soldiers or whoever is mentioned. Yeah. He did it for ME. And for YOU. We are the ones in the crowd. We are the ones with the hammer. It's about what HE did for ME.

For ME, faith isn't so much about obedience to a demanding God, it's about the opportunities He gives me to be a blessing; "blessed to be a blessing". The times I can touch someone with just a TINY, TINY bit of what He blessed me with. It's how we love Him back (John 13:34). It's how we share His love with others. And it ends up blessing us more than the other, which is the odd thing about God's economics. You can't out-love Him.



How about YOU? How has Christian faith blessed you?




Pax*



- Josiah




* Pax is Latin for peace, and for centuries was the common way Christians greeted each other (they departed with the same word - both the "hello" and "good-bye" of Chrsitians for centuries). It largely replace the "Shalom" of Judaism (which means the same thing). But this is not just an absence of war or conflict or termoil (physical or emotional), it is "the peace that passes all understanding" as the New Testament puts it..... something deep, rich, spiritual. It is my salutation to all my brothers and sisters.





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