An
Inkling
I
remember little from philosophy classes, but one professor’s claim has helped
me for years in understanding the nature of faith. (And he wasn’t even a Christian!)
The
professor claimed that the value of faith is determined more by the reliability
of the object than by the sincerity of the subject. In other words, the value of your faith is
determined less by the sincerity with which you believe than it is by the
worthiness of the one in whom you’ve placed that faith.
Consider
this example. Tom went to skate on a
frozen pond. He was fully confident that
the ice would hold his weight, and skated out toward the middle with great
abandon. But the ice was thin, and Tom
fell through. Tina, too, went skating on
a frozen pond. She was not at all sure
that the ice would hold her weight, and so she edged toward the middle with
great caution. But the ice was thick,
and Tina was secure.
Whose
faith was of greater value: Tom’s sincere faith in thin ice, or Tina’s
tentative faith in thick ice? Tina’s, of
course.
It
seems so obvious, and yet so many people persist in the myth that it doesn’t
matter what you believe, so long as you believe sincerely. Tom’s sincere faith only got him wet and cold
because the object of his faith was not worthy of his trust.
Jesus
once made a similar claim about the nature of faith: “If you have faith the size of a tiny mustard
seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move,’ and it will move; and nothing will
be impossible for you.” For those of us
whose faith often amounts to little more than a mustard seed, that’s especially
good news! It means that any faith in
the One who is perfectly reliable is of great value. For he is surer than the thickest ice! We trust not in the sincerity of our faith,
but in the reliability of our God.
Let’s
go skating!
Keith
