Faith in Life vs. Life in Faith

With the recent and extreme illness (and continuing recovery) of my wife, Martha, I have noticed a pattern of questioning from concerned friends and acquaintences, which allows me some insight into how people perceive matters of faith.

Some people view faith as a tool with which to handle the ups and downs of a life which seems to have no real purpose. It is a faith with a purpose, I suppose, in that faith is meant to support and strengthen a believer. God is certainly a personal god to those who view faith in this manner. I don't doubt that there is true belief here, as far as it goes. When trouble comes to a friend, a person operating within this framework often expresses concern by asking how faith has helped the friend cope with, or overcome their helplessness, fear, and confusion during the time of trouble. There is no doubt that many Psalms and Biblical passages can support this understanding of the role of faith. God is an everpresent help in time of need.

I think, however, that when we do this, we stray from the Biblical standard in at least two ways. First, today we seem to use "faith" in place of "Jesus" or "God" when describing what helped us in our time of trial. This is, to me, a secularization of Biblical faith into a generic 'faith in faith.'
Second, as I noted above, many of us stray into trivializing faith as a tool to be used when needed, then set aside for the next crisis.

Don't worry, I have not been categorizing your faith based upon how you asked me about my faith during Martha's illness. I have tended to sometimes think along these lines myself.

To finally connect with the title, I will note this about how I believe we should all approach our faith: I don't simply have faith in my life. I live my life in faith. In other words, faith is not a part of my life. My faith in God is the context of my life. Faith itself, God himself, is bigger than I. Faith and God are bigger than I;they predate, and will postdate, my puny existence.

The strength of this faith did not only just show up in time for the crisis. It has been there all along. God's gift to us is a salvation earned in a specific way, in a real time and place, and once and for all. The gift does not depend upon how much faith we have. It does not depend upon how we feel at a particular time. It is simply there. It happened the way it happened despite our unbelief, or lack of faith. It is steady and unchanging. And yes, I do have strength through it. But it is not my strength. It all belongs to God.

Finally, life's ups and downs, and in my case the big down of an unexplained illness in Martha, do not define my faith. My faith in Jesus defines my whole life, including the highest ups and the lowest downs.


Thanks for taking a look at my first post. I promise I won't dwell on this particular issue. But I cannot promise that it won't influence my future postings! This was written somewhat in haste, with no editing. So don't get too critical about the grammar!

Peace to you all,
John