{"id":1131,"date":"2024-06-29T23:53:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T04:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reflectionsintheknight\/?p=1131"},"modified":"2024-06-28T15:09:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T20:09:53","slug":"were-too-busy-to-have-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reflectionsintheknight\/2024\/06\/were-too-busy-to-have-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re too Busy to Have Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019re too Busy to Have Faith<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n We\u2019re too busy to have faith. It\u2019s a fact. Our days start earlier and earlier, and we work until the night before we think about going to sleep. We are surrounded by machines that are supposed to make our lives easier, yet somehow, we work more. We have become project-driven and don\u2019t have a big-picture vision. So, was it simpler a hundred, a thousand, two thousand years ago? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t think so. Instead of driving 400 miles to see family for over five and a half hours, you would walk three days to go only 50 miles. Instead of building massive skyscrapers, you\u2019d build a four-story flat. Why? Because there were no elevators. No one would want to walk more than four stories at a time. Instead of ordering out, you would track, hunt, kill, and dress your dinner. Or you would wait an entire growing season and hopefully have a good harvest that you could put up for the winter. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n No, things weren\u2019t simpler; they were just slower. And that may be their advantage. When we slow life down, even for a few minutes, it gives our system time to catch up. It gives our brain a chance to yawn and stretch. It gives our lungs a chance to take a deep, slow, and deliberate breath. It gives our imagination time to unfocus and to look around at the vastness of the universe. Think about it. When is the one time you have nothing else clawing at your time? When you take a shower! And that is the number one place people have new ideas these days.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Faith cannot be nurtured when we are so busy moving from one deadline to the next that we forget what day, time, or month it is. To have faith in something means you trust in it. You have taken the time to be with that thing you have faith in. And you have not just felt you can believe in that thing, but intellectually, you have relaxed into the idea that the thing you have faith in is worthy of your trust. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I have spoken to many people who say they have faith in God. They may not fully believe or trust that there\u2019s a God. They may feel that we are some vast celestial experiment, simply coming into being after eons of trial and error in a universal primordial soup. Jim, <\/span><\/span>a friend of mine, felt this way<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I asked Jim, \u201cGood for you. You <\/span><\/span>know<\/i><\/span><\/span> and have <\/span><\/span>faith<\/i><\/span><\/span> that there is no God. So,<\/span><\/span> how <\/i><\/span><\/span>do you know?\u201d As usual he beg<\/span><\/span>an<\/span><\/span> to quote some philosopher and a string of confirmed unbeliever\u2014spouting verbiage and catchy phrases that make him sound chic. After running out of gas, I asked again, \u201cHow do you know? Not anyone else. <\/span><\/span>You<\/i><\/span><\/span>.\u201d As usual, Jim dug back into other people\u2019s commentary, and I let him get one or two sentences in before I stop<\/span><\/span>ped<\/span><\/span> him. I said and asked,\u201d That\u2019s nice. You\u2019re telling me what <\/span><\/span>other people<\/i><\/span><\/span> think. But how do <\/span><\/span>you<\/i><\/span><\/span> know?\u201d He was stymied by the question, like he\u2019d never thought of it before. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Building faith takes time, and even when we begin to have faith, we only go so far. We act like we deserve only what we can eke out. Remember what it says in the book of Wisdom, \u201c[God] has fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome\u2026. God formed man to be imperishable; the image of His own nature He made him\u201d (Wisdom 1:14, 2:23). Did you get that? We have <\/span><\/span>being<\/i><\/span><\/span>. We exist. We have a soul, a spirit, a nature, an essence, a body. And we, as beings, were created wholesome. We are not contaminated, dirty, bad, impure, unhealthy manifestations by birth. No. After the fall of Adam in the garden, we were able to learn those things. Now, we may be led astray or forced to believe we have become those things. But originally, we all were created good. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We are created in the \u201clike-ness\u201d of God. Which means he knows us far better and more intimately than we think!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n We were born to be \u201cimperishable\u201d and in the \u201cimage of God\u2019s own nature.\u201d A point of fact: God doesn\u2019t have a body. He is pure spirit. So, how can we be made in the image of God? We are made in the image of His <\/span><\/span>nature<\/i><\/span><\/span>. God formed us with a will and the vital part of us to live forever\u2014our souls. The problem is, very few people have true faith in these facts. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n One person who did have this faith was the woman in Mark\u2019s Gospel\u2014the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years. She instinctively knew\u2014had faith\u2014that if she touched Jesus\u2019s clothes, she would be cured. She didn\u2019t hope she would be healed; she didn\u2019t wish she\u2019d be cured. She <\/span><\/span>knew<\/i><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n And what did Jesus do? He knew someone who had faith had touched him. He was \u201caware at once power had gone out from Him\u201d (Mark 5: 30). He stopped and addressed the woman who had unwavering faith and told her, \u201cDaughter, your <\/span><\/span>faith<\/i><\/span><\/span> has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction\u201d (Mark 5: 34). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So, how do we develop our faith and believe what Wisdom tells us is our birthright? How do we develop the faith that the woman in Mak\u2019s Gospel had? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Time. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It takes time to get to know the other person in any relationship. People in Jesus\u2019s day didn\u2019t have the distractions of the internet and cell phones. People who wanted to communicate actually had to talk to one another. Either that or hire a scribe and send a very expensive letter to the other person. The two people could look into each other\u2019s eyes and read each other\u2019s experiences, tone of voice, and excitement levels. They became familiar with the other person. They got to know them and their ways.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Get away! Go for a walk in the woods and actually breathe! Then, allow your mind to wander and allow God to seep in and whisper in your ear.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Getting to know God is the same. We have to give God our time, give Him our conversations, and get to know who He is by reading stories about Him. We need to stop living in an \u201c<\/span><\/span>i<\/i><\/span><\/span>\u201d world, as in <\/span><\/span>i<\/i><\/span><\/span>Phone, <\/span><\/span>i<\/i><\/span><\/span>Pad, <\/span><\/span>i<\/i><\/span><\/span>Book, etc. and the other \u201cI\u201d world\u2014 \u201cI want this, and I want that, and I won\u2019t do what you want because it isn\u2019t what I want.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We live in a <\/span><\/span>we<\/i><\/span><\/span> world. A world where <\/span><\/span>we<\/i><\/span><\/span> take the time, and <\/span><\/span>we<\/i><\/span><\/span> talk to God. <\/span><\/span>We<\/i><\/span><\/span> listen to God, and <\/span><\/span>we<\/i><\/span><\/span> get to know Him for ourselves. When you take the time, your faith will grow. Then you can ask someone who doesn\u2019t believe, \u201cSo, <\/span><\/span>how<\/i><\/span><\/span> do you know? Have you taken the time to find out?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Oh, and Jim\u2026 He\u2019s now living in a monastery<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in western Oregon. He took the time, began to listen, and yes turned \u201cI\u201d into \u201cwe.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re too busy to have faith. It\u2019s a fact. Our days start earlier and earlier, and we work until the night before we think about going to sleep. We are surrounded by machines that are supposed to make our lives easier, yet somehow, we work more. We have become project-driven and don\u2019t have a big-picture vision. So, was it simpler a hundred, a thousand, two thousand years ago?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":1143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[780,765,774,768,777,771],"class_list":["post-1131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirational","category-uncategorized","tag-breathe","tag-busy","tag-gospels","tag-prayer-time","tag-unfocused","tag-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\nWe\u2019re too Busy to Have Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We\u2019re too busy to have faith. It\u2019s a fact. Our days start earlier and earlier, and we work until the night before we think about going to sleep. We are surrounded by machines that are supposed to make our lives easier, yet somehow, we work more. We have become project-driven and don\u2019t have a big-picture vision. 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