Guest Rant: I Hear A George Michael Song....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today's guest rant is more of a stolen blog from http://itsjustbecky.blogspot.com/ but since I was the reason she decided to write this blog I have no problem reposting it. =) So lets get to it.



"(KG suggested that I blog about my thoughts on faith.)

The Wikipedia definition of faith is: The confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing. And from Dictionary.com: a belief not based on proof. So to combine them, it would be: The confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept, thing or belief that can not be proven.

The various things we have faith in are not provable. But am I not correct when saying they should still be able to withstand scrutiny? It says the person, concept, thing or belief should be trustworthy. So what if you feel that the person, concept, thing or belief that you are supposed to have faith in is not trustworthy? What if your experience shows that it is not worthy of your trust? If you had a friend that always told you that they'd be there for you but never was when you really needed them, would you consider that friend trustworthy? If you had a friend that told you they would never get mad at you, but then gave you the silent treatment, would you consider that friend trustworthy? When you scrutinize those two situations, you have to come to the conclusion that they are not. Therefore, you couldn't really have faith in them. They would be proven unfaithful. But what if you knew that a large percentage of the world would line up in front of you and testify that they are trustworthy - that they are the only people that you actually trust in all things. Would that not create cognitive dissonance? You know know they are faithful yet you feel they have not been faithful to you.

Okay. So what do we do about having faith in God? We can not prove God's existence. We have evidence of him in many things, but no proof. One of those evidences is the bible. The bible is full of promises to us. If I weren't so tired and lazy, I'd look up a few of them. But you know all the ones I'm talking about. So what do you do when you do not see proof of the promises made by God? If he promises you comfort, and you beg and plead for it but do not receive comfort, what does that mean? If he promises to be there for you when you need him, but then is silent when you DO need him, what does that mean? In the instances before, we decided that would mean that he's not trustworthy and therefore unfaithful.

But how dare I say God is unfaithful? We go to church and are reminded every time that God is faithful to us. But does that mean He is? We're told he would never abandon us, but what if he does? What if when you really need him, you get none of the help or comfort from him that you beg and plead for? What are you to think? Can we really have faith in those promises? If something is true, it's true. If it's not, it's not. I believe in God. I do. But I do not understsand him. I feel as if I shouldn't be able to trust him right now, because I feel none of the comfort or support that he has promised and that I so desparately need from him.

When I bring this up, I'm usually told, "No, to have faith in God means you just trust him to do what's right for you and accept his will." But where does it say that? I don't see that anywhere . Maybe it's just that none of those scriptures are coming to mind at the moment. But that's not one of the definitions of faith. Someone must have said that once and it just hung on.

And what do you do when your faith goes unacknowledged? How do you keep hoping (related to faith) if your hope is never rewarded? Do you just hope that one day it will be, even though it hasn't so far? I don't understand. I sure wish I could, because it would be so much better to be able to have faith.

But I can't right now. When I need him the most, all I get is silence. Time and time again. Everytime. Silence from the heavens. How do you trust someone that's let you down? (And I know a lot of you should know because I know I let a lot of you down. So how do YOU do it ?)


Becky"