Sunday, September 19, 2010

Not always but close

A friend confidently shared with me that belief always comes first and then faith. It didn't seem right to me. First you have to put your faith in something and then after it doesn't let you down enough, you believe in it. It seems to me.

And things are never always. There is always an exception.

But I guess things come close enough sometimes that you can say it might as well be always.

If that's true then I think being always drives doing where transformation and change are concerned. For me.

Doing is outside in.

Being is inside out.

Doing stuff enough might develop some good habits and in doing that you might experience something that transforms your being.

But things don't seem to get started until the experience happens and then you start doing stuff in response to that.

We spend lots of time planning the stuff we do. And maybe we don't spend quite enough time understanding how or if that stuff informs or transforms who and what we are.

We should do more of that.

1 comment:

Pat MacPherson said...

I believe we have to make a decision to believe before faith appears. But in doing this we're acting on faith or maybe is it hope?

I find that many times God requires us to take the initiative before He reveals himself or His action.

Take Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. We know that it was God who parted the Red Sea and not Moses but God required Moses to stick his staff into the Sea before He parted it. Sometimes I wonder if Moses really believed God? Or was he acting out of faith?

I'm going to sign off but as I do I'm thinking of what we're taught in the Bible that the first will be last and the last will be first; or we must die to ourselves to gain life; or that we must be born again. All of this seems backwards to me.