Spiritual Hiccups - Room for Faith

By nature I tend to be something of a control freak.  This is often a real liability as a pastor, stifling the efforts of other leaders in the church.  And it also poses a deeper, spiritual problem.  It gets in the way of true faith.  Faith is about trusting something outside myself, trusting God.  By definition that means giving up control.  Richard Rohr's daily meditations this week focus on the theme of paradox, and today's piece spoke to this problem of giving up control.

So when we speak of paradox, I’m trying to open up that space where you can “fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31), because YOU are not in control.  That is always the space of powerlessness, vulnerability, and letting go.  Faith happens in that wonderful place, and hardly ever when we have all the power and can hold no paradoxes.  Thus you see why faith will invariably be a minority and suspect position.  (Click here to read the entire meditation.)

 As I think about my own difficulty giving up control, I wonder about Rohr's comment on faith always being "a minority and suspect position."  Indeed our culture mitigates powerfully against faith as an absolute trust in God.  Many speak of America as a Christian nation, but we trust our security not to the LORD who "builds up Jerusalem" (see today's Psalm) but to a massive military complex.  In faith the psalmist can sing, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea."  (Psalm 46)  Yet fear drives much of American life.  We fear terrorists, those who are different from us, those who disagree with us, etc.

If letting go and discovering faith is indeed a minority position, then perhaps the most faithful thing those who would embrace faith can do is to make a powerful minority witness.  I say I am, or at least strive to be, a person of faith.  And so I will strive to be a person who is not afraid, who discovers joy in turning over my fears to God, and who learns to live without needing to control.

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