CityView Magazine

Engaging Christian Spirituality FAITH BEFORE FEELINGS By The Rev. Dan Alger W hat is the basis for our faith? Most of us claim to believe in something, but where do we get our beliefs from? What do we base them on? In my experience, people have a tendency to form their faith in light of their circumstances and feelings. Here’s how it shakes down: when things are going well we feel self-sufficient, and God becomes a nugget of inspiration we can nibble on when we want to feel a little deeper, but he is not really the core of our existence. When things are really terrible we question whether God exists at all. Then there is that place in the middle when we are anxious about something bad that could possibly happen but is beyond our control. During that time we pray God would actively step in and make everything work out the way we would like it to. When it doesn’t? Well, then we are back to not believing God exists at all. There has to be a better way. What if we were to have a faith that was not dictated by our present experiences, but instead we interpreted our present reality through the lens of our faith? Here is what I mean. If I see God as some distant and inactive force then all I have left is my feelings to decide what I think he is doing up there in heaven and how that affects me. In reality, I become my own god of my life because I determine what is right, true, and what is best for me. If, instead, God is a personal god who truly cares about me, is active in my life and truly wants me to know him as well, then everything is different. Instead of learning about God from my feelings, I can better understand why I feel the way I feel in light of what I know about who God is and how he works in the world. I’m not saying feelings are bad – Jesus laughed and cried – I’m just saying that they are deceiving if we make them the standard of our view of the universe. Sometimes your feelings are shaped by the chemicals in your brain, how much sleep you got last night, or the bad Mexican food you ate for lunch. If we see God as knowable and consistent, then when situations and feelings come up we can interpret them in light of how God has spoken to us rather than figuring God out from how we feel. So, how do we know God, and what do we know about him? As a Christian, I believe that God has revealed himself in three major ways. First of all, he gave us the Bible. Second, he has revealed himself by becoming one of us in Jesus Christ. Finally, he has given us his presence in what we call the Holy Spirit that works in us to understand and be transformed by the truth he has given us. All of this is read, known and experienced with a group of other people who are trying to live this life together. We call them the church, a place where we can know God’s character, his plans, his standards and his wisdom, and we can live life together as God works in us to apply these things to our lives. No circumstance can change the fact that God has created us, that he dearly loves us, and that he wants what is best for us. We live in a world that is skewed and broken, so we do not know happiness all the time, but God has promised us something greater than happiness. He has promised to be with us even when things are dark, and he has promised that one day he will make all things new. God is good, God is close, God is working in all things. So, if something bad happens we can find strength from God in the midst of it rather than thinking that he has abandoned us because of it. Let’s start there and then try to understand our lives, rather than looking at our screwed- up lives to try and understand God. This is where we find true hope, freedom, forgiveness and wisdom. I’m not saying it would be easy, but wouldn’t it radically change how you see the world?CV The Rev. Dan Alger is pastor of The Church of the Apostles. He may be reached at www.tcota.org or ecs@tcota.org. CityViewNC.com | 19

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