Belief versus Faith

"Do not fear, only believe." --Gospel of Mark 5:36

Suzanne

by Roberta Flack

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... Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
He spent a long time
Watching from a lonely wooden tower

And when He knew for certain
That only drowning men could see Him
He said, "All men shall be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"

But He Himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
He was forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

But you wanna travel with Him
And you wanna travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust Him
For He's touched your perfect body with His mind

Suzanne takes you down
To the place by the river
She's wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army's counters

And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbor
And she shows you where to look
Amid the garbage and the flowers...

Be not afraid; come follow me; do not fear, only believe-- these are the central philosophies of the Christ. Jesus, we learn in the Bible, makes them among his central points. Fear must be overcome with faith firmly planted in its place. While fear may be a valuable response as part of a self-preservation instinct, it can also be destructive, paralyzing, controlling us, preventing our living life as the Spirit might direct, unresponsive to free will. The mature person seeks to learn what is in his and others best interest, and endeavors towards those aims. He or she avoids what is contrary and stands against those ills as they may be able.

Frequently the Bible stories serve as imperatives; they prod, define and refine the mind of the reader, so that we may become believers. In this particular story, Jesus recounts his journey to the foreign community of the Gerasenes, who were not Israelites. While there he heals the mind of a deeply troubled man (Mark 5:19-20). He then implores his followers to overlook those peoples' faults and shortcomings, and urges them to bring the message of hope and belief to them.
Continue with the story. Read Mark chapter 5 verses 21-43.

While many will doubt the words they read of a long ago account, faith asks us to "have ears" as the ancient Israelite did, and to hear the message within the story because it is a parable. Today the emotional state of anxiety and fearfulness seem ever more prevalent.
Many of us seek treatment for anxiety and stress in a doctors office with pills and other medication; while these preparations often do effectively tamp down or mask our sensory impulses towards anxiety and fearfulness, the calm of our own mind though the peace the Christ seeks to impart upon us, is not part of the medical equation. Thus we are less free and more under the influence of the drug or other medication.

While some may require medication and rightly so, there is a degree of calm, a direction for all which may be the fruit of the Spirit descended into our lives. It is the nature of the Spirit to come calling upon all, but not by any force or coercion; Spirit knocks. We either answer or we don't and if not, the Spirit is free and it flies. It will not force its way upon anyone.The Christ brings a message of the possibility of freedom from fear: "Do not be afraid, I am with you always."

What is belief, what is faith? We hear the phrase, 'just have faith!' So what is it? Most of us take for granted that religion is a set or system of beliefs; it is to many strictly concerned with beliefs and the adherence to those beliefs. This however is a rather narrow view; the Spirit comes to free us, not entangle us upon a set of dictum.
Many of the world's religions are not characterized primarily by beliefs at all, but by practice, about appropriate behaviors. So it happens that faith is about relationships, and belief is about ways of doing and being.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of religion, all religion, no religion in particular, is that as a facet of life, it instills a set of beliefs very successfully in many without ever bringing a person to faith. Many are familiar with the story, "I attended as a child, but fell away..."
Since both belief and faith formation are important in the spiritual life, one without the other does not often succeed. As persons of faith, we engage and refine our beliefs within relationships, within communities. So the teaching, "love one another," becomes real; it becomes the imperative in faith.

Before We Were

I hope he's not like me. I hope he understands. That he can take this life And hold it by the hand. And he can greet the world with arms wide open..." -- Lyrics for Arms Wide Open by Creed

Arms Wide Open
By Creed
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Before we were the occupants of today, of this moment, who were we? Where did we come from? How were we brought into today? If there is principally the day, to-day in our lives, if this moment and each and every moment is what truly comprises our lives, then what does that day contain? May we, 'greet the world with arms wide open...?'
Always, so very often we rush about, scurrying here and there in the course of the day. As the days mount and as we meet each new day, the sun arises lighting the way; other days it is darkness, cold or gloom. Technology increasingly diverts us from our moorings, giving us an altered sense of time. Computing and communicating with others literally a world away, as though they have not traveled beyond a common realm; they have, and we can forget, or not reckon with the day that is without them in it because of the falseness of technology and its skewing of our senses.

Eons of existence, days upon days of living have made humankind the social, communicating animals that we are and continue to be. But it is ultimately the reckoning with time that we cannot escape. While others are sleeping, still others are awake and engaged in the active part of their day. Each day, as we grow older, is replete with experiences over-worn with other experiences. Experiences of all types and stripes; each imparting a message, some consciously retained, others less so. They are all lessons of one type or another.

This week I heeded an urge to 'play hooky' from my usual daily routine; it proved to be a tour of memory, a review of selected past, connecting me today. With the emergence of some very fine spring weather, I drove my usual East-West direction but by a different route. Spending some time by myself, it took most all afternoon. Despite my recollections of experiences past, some 20 or more years ago, I traveled parallel to the Interstate and saw so much new, adding to my previous memory. The old route in the days before the Interstate was the route.

There are towns, villages and farms along the way as there have been during my lifetime. The bigger towns, especially, may not have altered their boundaries, but their content continues to evolve with new buildings, new zoning, new populations, new attitudes reflected by their community environment. The country parts of the routes were perhaps the most geographically or visually stable, the farmsteads nearly consistent, a new barn or shed here or there. But the most surprising were those places no longer farming, their buildings in disrepair; their owners engaged in new functions, no longer attending them. The homes built upon former farm fields; the little country subdivisions sprung here and there. There are new windmills, buildings burnt and businesses closed.
Memories revised with new information.

But the most, for me, personally was to retrace the route of my 25th year and the paths it took me into a new family and a new life, a community life. The days, it seem, have traveled into a wink; they have been in the thousands but save for gray hairs on my head, I would not have known. It seems my beliefs and my feelings have withstood many of the other outward changes life has imposed upon me. My hopes, my future dreams, my energies placed at that moment towards the services of that 25th year, now in review, are wistful. Moments of choices taken and others rejected.

It was, on that breezy day, golden sun, an arrival. Not just a review but a clear view of where I sit now. Today. I arrive at my destination today with a fuller and greater sense of just this moment, and all the moments I have lived and survived to get here. Age does improve many things and many things grow into focus while others dim, their importance perhaps misplaced or even lost on a spring day.