Imperfect, but Sufficient

Faith the size of a mustard seed... The upright person lives by their faithfulness... Our faith is precious... These are the lines from today's scripture readings that stick with me. Perhaps the one that left me thinking more than the others was when the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith. Who among us wouldn't also ask Jesus to increase our faith?

The apostles were faced with some pretty daunting work, and increase in faith, from their perspective, would be a great help. These days we see and read about people who have shown great faith, and we wish we had the same. It's natural, but it also takes attention away from the work in our own faith. If we only had the faith of Mother Theresa, St Ignatius, or Joe down the street (or Suzy on my blog list) then our spiritual troubles would surely be solved. Or so it seems.

Could it be that we already have all the faith we need? Maybe it's all there just waiting for us to uncover it, to become familiar with it, to explore the depths of it. Our faith isn't perfect, but that's part of the human condition. We're not really different from the apostles who asked for their faith to be increased; we're in good company:

Mark the apostles: they would never have left everything they possessed and spurned worldly ambition to follow the Lord unless their faith had been great; and yet that faith of theirs could not have been perfect, otherwise they would hot have asked the Lord to increase it.

St Augustine of Hippo

So our faith isn't perfect; what in our life is perfect? I'm tending to believe that the faith we do have is sufficient. God has equipped us with what we need, and so perhaps it's up to us to find it and draw on it as we need to in answering God's call in our lives.

Comments

[Hope]

My faith sure isn't perfect. And these days I'm hesitant to ask for it to be increased. I spent one summer asking each day on the way to work for my faith to be increased. What followed was welfare and food banks and the premature death of a loved one. There is something though about having so much stripped away that a person is forced to decide if they have faith at all. I've never again though asked for my faith to be increased.

[KiwiNomad06]

For me of little faith usually.... I had a very precious conversation with a priest yesterday.... after which / during which... my faith has been increased. The love of God was in the midst of the conversation. And I can only be thankful.

[Wayne]

Faith seems to be a gift that is so beautiful and joyful that it makes me wonder why we resist it. I recently heard that when we strive for perfection we can usually become perfectly silly.

women got the great names... Faith, Hope, Joy, and my mom's Grace?

[crystal]

I have trouble understanding what faith even means. Is it believing in God's existence, or believing that he loves me? I have as much doubt about the second possibility as with the first, but I'm not giving up, not yet :-)

[Steve Bogner]

Hope, that sounds like quite a rough time. I'm glad you made it through!

Kiwi - That sounds great! It really is something to be thankful about.

Hi Wayne - Interesting question.... why do some resist faith? Maybe the difference is tied to those who look before leaping, and those who don't?

Crystal! What does faith mean? Sounds like a good title for a series of essays or something like that. I think the meaning has a very personal component, as well as a more general one.

[Patrick]

Hi Steve.
A question of "faith increase desire" has distracted many a believer on this faith journey we refer to as life. This plays right into the deceiver's hand so to speak. He is delighted when we are unaware of the fact that we have as much faith as we need. God gives us A-L-L that we need to live a full life. We have food for the body, the mind and the soul. God knows what we are facing and supplies us with sufficient and then some more of what we require. All we have to be, is aware of the bountiful supply, and draw on it as we need. It is not just suficient, it is suficient and then more, a full measure shaken and pressed, as they say.

God gave all of us men, women and children the gifts of Faith, Hope and Trust. When we recognise and avail of them we see their fruit as L-O-V-E. Paul says as much in his frst letter to the Corinthians. We just need to be aware and draw on the gift and deny the deceiver his smug smile...

We are precious to God, we have all we need for the journey.

"I believe Lord, help my unbelief" was a quote given to me some years ago. I have chosen to ignore it, I choose to belief and let God's gift of FAITH, HOPE and TRUST grow and mature as LOVE. I believe, and so it is. Thank God.

[Cura]

Imperfect but sufficient. I really, really like that idea Steve. For me it's a head verses heart thing. I know a lot about what faith means in my head. I know God loves me, I know God gives me everything I need and has already given me everything I need. I KNOW this in my head...but do I BELIEVE it in my heart and soul? Do I really?

Do I live as though I do? With no fear? All the time?

Do I love as though I believe this? Without reserve, without strings? All the time?

Imperfect yes. Sufficient? Go I hope so, 'cause this is all I've got.

Thanks for this Steve.

CA

[jim]

Good to find you up and kicking, Steve. You've heard my own explanation for faith before. It hasn't changed. If we'd just quit trying to produce some miracle-working dose of it on our own and just fall into the Indwelling given us. we might find it's all about what He does in us and through us. He spanned the gulf once. Why need we to clone the event?.....

[Steve Bogner]

Patrick, Jim - I think you guys are saying basically the same thing : don't worry so much about defining or measuring it, just get in tune with the Spirit and let it take you where it goes. I like that assessment :)

Cura - The head vs. heart thing is something I'm also susceptible to. But it's my thought process that brings me back to the heart-process; just can't get stuck in the head-part of it.

[Patti]

When I was little, I always used to wish that it had been a ketchup seed or something different -- I hated mustard. Fortunately, I grew up and learned the use of metaphors.

[Steve Bogner]

Thanks for the smiles Patti!

[Jeff]

Hi Steve,

I think we always have to realize that faith is a gracious gift and not something that we can generate and create out of nothing on our own. He chooses us, not the other way around. On the other hand, I do think that there is a role we can play with our own willpower in that we are often so busy talking and doing that we don't take the time to "listen" and to "see" when God is trying to get through to us.

[Victor]

How you doing Steve?

Jesus said ask and you will receive and we true Christians know that He’s no liar. In the late sixties when I was told in so many words to take a transfer from my job or quit, I looked my dad in the eyes and told him that I was taking the transfer and he simply replied that he had never gone that low and walked away. I hear ya! You’re not going to start one of your long stories now are you sinner vic? (lol)

OK! To make a long story short, the more I quietly searched for God and made sacrifices to save souls, the more trouble I got into and when I asked God to show me if I had saved any souls He showed me. The honesty and love that I felt was so great that I thought it was the end of the world. To make another long story short I was later sent to a government mental hospital and it took me a month to get out of there. I’ll close by saying that I went back home but still my so called spiritual friends would not let me be. The paranoia was so great that I honestly believed back then that if I could have lost these spiritual friends of mine by going to the end of the world, I would have tried.

I could go on and on but I’ll try and close by saying that we should simply stick to just praying for our soul and our spirit cause our flesh is not ready to understand and withstand the pain of our sins. We Christians today really have it made because of Jesus and all we have to do is live each day like an Honest Little Child accumulating eternal days while His Angels take our Pass and our Future and wrapped it All UP in a beautiful Present.

I would suggest that we don’t believe any angels who would try to con vince US that the world is really all ours to do with it as we chose because what would a human gain by receiving the whole world but losing his or her soul and/or spirit in the process.

P.S. Tell wintermute that it's takes more than a three day head start to out run a bullet in the spiritual world. (lol)

Forgive me Steve, I guess I’ve been away from the “Net” for too long.

[Patrick]

Hi Steve!

Sometimes I am ashamed to belong to the Roman Catholic Church. When I encounter stories of scandal and the subsequent efforts by those in authority to try to cover up these events and hide the perpetrators from reasonable accountability, I cringe... and I ask myself what would Jesus say?

Some years ago I was a tv programme with several members of our local hierarchy, bishops, priests and other members of the laity. I asked then as I ask now, If jesus were to speak to us here and now, what would he say "Come o blessed of my Father you have done exactly as my Father said,,, " or would he say something else,.... maybe "get behind me ...". I did not get an answer then or since from any of our bishops.. I am still waiting.. while I cringe.

At least I know God loves all of us unconditionnally.

[ms]

Like Wayne I'm not sure what i have is faith, not always. Is it faith that God is watching out for us? That he loves me? That if only I believe and trust then all will come out as it is meant? But what about the free will of others -- our God-given gift -- to mess things up? If I were a mother in Darfur watching my baby die for lack of food would I be able to say God gave me all I needed? Did He give that mom in Darfur everything she and her baby needs? Maybe so, and then through the exercise of free will another took it away ... these are the sorts of things that confound me and lead me to doubt I even know what it means to have faith. In a vacuum, w/o thinking of the larger world, it is easier to think I have faith (some, at least some of the time)...

[Patrick]

ms, I am told that only those who are aware of their doubts can truly expereince the REAL JOY of TRUE FAITH. Those who have no doubts have something other than faith. True FAITH has doubt attached to it. My image of TRUE FAITH is Jesus in that Garden, " Abba Father, if you can ..but your will be done" or in other words, I cannot see how this works for your glory but I trust you, my faith is in your Word....

I believe in the gifts God gives us of Faith, Hope and Trust. When we enter that void, that empty space,that cloud of unknowing, we appreciate these gifts. In the light of day when the sun is shining and all is well in our world, we do not appreciate the gifts. My belief in the void is dependent on those gifts. I thank God for them.

[ms]

So then is faith a conscious decision; is a conscious choice? If so is the "faith" of children a matter of their innocence? I guess that would make sense as I have read the story of Adam 'n Eve to mean that original sin is the desire for knowledge and then acting on that despite a warning against. But if everything was created by God and the fruit was one that provide knowledge of what was good and bad, what was there bad to know? Of course there is plenty bad to know now, much of it created and breathed into life by virtue of the vastly increased knowledge we possess and continue to demand ...

[Patrick]

My belief is that Faith is a gift from God. Our choice comes in accepting the gift. Just as accepting God's Unconditional Love is our choice.

The Original Sin in my way of understanding it is that Adam and Eve came to "the knowledge" that they could refuse God's Love and they choose to refuse it, or not trust God to love unconditionnally. The Deceipt was initiated by their free will to choose.

God gave us every thing we have, including the ability to choose. When we choose to trust and accept God's unconditional Love we grow and mature and are able to encounter living with the confidence of God's children who are loved unconditionally.

When we choose to move outside of God's Love we have only our selves to depend on. As creatures of nature we are seriously flawed to deal with life's traumas. As Children of The Loving God who created us, we are so to speak invincible, with God.

Or so I believe. Travel safely with Unconditional Love.

[Steve Bogner]

ms & Patrick -

Sorry I haven't popped in here on a more timely basis to thank you both for the sharing you've both done. I don't claim to have faith all figured out, but I'd have to say that I see it as a two-part deal - one part gift from God and one part human yearning to make sense out of the cosmos.

[Fran aka Redondowriter]

I'm off on my pilgrimage tour to Turkey and Greece--and just got word of a wonderful tour by a local priest, Ray Mallett, to Assisi and Rome in Nov. 2008. I think I'm going to start saving NOW. Hope all is well. Say a prayer for us, please.