The place of faith in my life

I admit that I don't reveal a lot of myself on this blog. I am most comfortable digging into and discussing issues facing the church. Those issues always involve me, as both a Christian and a pastor, but it is not easy for me to openly discuss my own place in the middle of all of it.

But I've got to tell you, I read something today that gave me a feeling I haven't had in a long, long time. It's a short article in the new issue of Newsweek magazine. The article discusses Harvard University's debates over whether to require its undergraduates to take a course in religion. Harvard isn't exactly returning to the bosom of the church, mind you. But some on the faculty do believe that living in a religiously complex world makes knowledge about religion a must.

Well, it ain't going to happen. As soon as a study group of faculty members offered a curriculum proposal that included the required religion course in the area of "faith and reason," a lot of other faculty members freaked out. Newsweek reports that most of them were from the science faculty, and that they felt offended that "faith" and "reason" were being mentioned in the same sentence. As the article explains, the scientists see the two as distinct forms of knowledge that should not be lumped together in anyway.

There was an element of condescension in the statement, of course. But that got me thinking: there are a whole lot of people out there who equate faith in God with pure superstition. I have always known this to be true, but I don't think about it very often.

That made me think what my life would be like without my faith.

And the thought of it scared me to death.

I mean, it made a nauseous, sick feeling go throughout my whole body. And I realized that removing my faith would remove the only reason I have to live on this earth. My entire day-to-day existence is tied to trying to live into my faith more and more. My whole sense of hope is wrapped up in the faith I have that Jesus Christ's purposes will be fulfilled - for me and for this world.

Don't pigeon hole what I mean by "hope." Yes, it is an ultimate hope - for a general resurrection of the dead and for life eternal. But it is also the hope that gives my earthly life meaning, that which helps me to make sense of suffering, of love, of my own existence.

I guess there are lots of people out there who just reconcile a complete lack of faith in God with their lives on earth. I don't envy them.