Originally,
“dumb” bells were counter weights used in machinery or cranes as needed. They
may or may not have been bell shaped. They were known as “dumb” because they
didn’t make a bell sound like a normal bell-shaped medal would have. People of
brawn were employed to move the dumbbells as required. Eventually, competitions
evolved to see who could lift the most weight. The dumbbells were used to train
and build up the strength of the competitors.
Whether the dumbbells rested in place, acting as counterweights or used in competitions they were useful hunks of metal.
In the past, I have referred to the doubts that often creep into the faithful Christian’s life as dumbbells. Our doubts can help build strength in our faith. So, rather than running away from, or denying our doubts, let’s put them to use, share them with one another and help build a stronger faith.
Fair enough I guess, for “dumb” bells. For they are “dumb”, they don’t speak or ring out as a bell ought. Yet the faithful Christian is, in some sense, meant to ring out and proclaim a faith that has the resurrected Christ at its centre.
Arguments and shouting, threats and division, laws and battles are probably the very things Saint Paul warns us about when he writes of the danger of being, “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Cor 13:1)
Paul goes on to say that at the core of a strong and healthy faith is love. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor. 13:4-7)
Our faith rings out, as it is designed to do, when we are acting with love. Our faith rings out all the more powerfully, when we are strengthened by those dumb times, when our doubts feel like they are getting the better of us.
Whether the dumbbells rested in place, acting as counterweights or used in competitions they were useful hunks of metal.
In the past, I have referred to the doubts that often creep into the faithful Christian’s life as dumbbells. Our doubts can help build strength in our faith. So, rather than running away from, or denying our doubts, let’s put them to use, share them with one another and help build a stronger faith.
Fair enough I guess, for “dumb” bells. For they are “dumb”, they don’t speak or ring out as a bell ought. Yet the faithful Christian is, in some sense, meant to ring out and proclaim a faith that has the resurrected Christ at its centre.
Arguments and shouting, threats and division, laws and battles are probably the very things Saint Paul warns us about when he writes of the danger of being, “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Cor 13:1)
Paul goes on to say that at the core of a strong and healthy faith is love. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor. 13:4-7)
Our faith rings out, as it is designed to do, when we are acting with love. Our faith rings out all the more powerfully, when we are strengthened by those dumb times, when our doubts feel like they are getting the better of us.
Letting doubts build
strength in our faith, both personally and in our community, help define us so
that we reflect more clearly the love of God in us.
No comments:
Post a Comment