Isa. 8:16-9:1; 2 Pet. 1:1-11; Luke 22:39-53 For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. Faith, it seems doesnt flourish without effort. Its not like a dandelion, or that trumpet vine in my backyard that I pull up 50 times every summer but which comes back anyway. Faith requires some cultivation. Like corn, say. Did you know that, without human effort, the species we call corn will go extinct in one short growing season? Like domesticated turkeys, its so hybridized that it cant successfully reproduce without us. Just, apparently, as faith is so hybridized that it cant flourish without effort. Faith without goodness is frail and prone to die--but goodness comes from knowledge, apparently. Think about that for a moment. Being good means being informed! And as any serious college student will tell you, knowledge takes discipline and stick-to-it-iveness, on the self-control to say no to pizza and yes to homework. But none of these traits are natural, youve got to ask God for help. And that wont happen if youre trying to do it alone, it requires communal life. And in the end, it all stands on love. Thats a lot of tilling, fertilizing, picking rocks and weeding, isnt it? Faith isnt so simple a thing. Its not suspension of disbelief. Its an act of will, backed up by loads more acts of will. I cant believe something if Im not willing to work, hard, on being a good person, on keeping myself well-informed, on keeping my ego and appetites in check, on not giving up when things get hard, on having a relationship with God, on having a relationship with others. If Im not willing to love.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 21:03:11 +0000
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