I never was one for comic
books or comic book heroes. So when my friends argued about Batman versus
Superman I usually zoned-out. Today, I imagine most of my childhood friends
would zone-out when I try and explain the difference between Faith and Belief.
The trouble begins, I guess,
in the same way the comic book debate does, with a failure to realize that
Batman and Superman live in two different worlds. Their stories only collide
when Hollywood executives want to make a buck or two. So it is with Faith and
Belief, they are such different things, it’s hard to imagine that they would collide
at all. And nobody profits.
Today, our understanding of
the word Belief is that it requires a cognitive acceptance of the existence of
God and the intellectual reception of creedal statements. And when we confuse
Faith as being like Belief it becomes solely an exercise of our brains. But
Faith, as it is understood in scripture means to be in a God-initiated relationship
with our souls and spirit, even if our minds are not aware of it. It
doesn’t help matters when the translators translate the Greek word for faith as
“believe.”
The point of all that God
does for us is to bring us to Faith, and by Faith we mean into a spiritual
relationship with the Divine. A relationship that isn’t so much about cognitive
reasoning but simply being in love with the God who first loved us. We are
invited into a relationship with God and asked to bring our whole being: heart,
mind, body and soul. As much as we might desire understanding, Faith, like Love
doesn’t need it. There is a place for the intellect, for Belief, but Faith, an
entirely separate thing, mustn’t be left out of the equation.
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