Challenge Remains To Live Out Our Faith

Sat., Jan. 10, 1998

Paul Graves Staff writer

Can you help me out again?

Last month you helped me think about whether I should send my son his childhood toy box. (He has since said he wants to pick it up himself on his next car trip from Milwaukee, Wis.)

Today I want your help on a little different matter. Just answer this question in 25 words or less: How is your faith practical on a daily basis?

This is the question I’m asking myself as I prepare for a five-week Sunday morning adult class in our congregation.

Like I tend to do a lot, I’m creating a class from a bare-bones idea. The class is called “A Pragmatic Spirituality for United Methodists.”

For those who think United Methodists have no or little theology, feel free to join us at 8:30 a.m. in Sandpoint for five Sundays beginning next week. You may be quite surprised. I suspect many United Methodists will be!

Actually, you can still help me if you belong to another denomination or even no church at all. Our primary focus, you see, will be on what it takes for each person’s spirituality to be practical on a daily basis.

John Wesley, our spiritual forefather, believed passionately that religious belief should be expressed in daily living by:

“Doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind.”

“Doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all.”

“Attending upon all the ordinances of God, such as: the public worship of God, the ministry of Word either read or expounded, the Supper of the Lord, family and private prayer, searching the Scriptures, fasting or abstinence.”

Further, our official doctrine reminds us that “we proclaim no personal gospel that fails to express itself in relevant social concerns; we proclaim no social gospel that does not include the personal transformation of sinners.”

So there’s your quickie look at what United Methodists preach about linking personal belief with daily action in our relationships and society. Yet the pragmatic question still remains for us all to confront: How is your faith practical on a daily basis?

I would hope this is a central question for you even if you don’t happen to claim John Wesley as your spiritual ancestor. Because while Brother Wesley emphasized practicality, he didn’t invent the question.

I tend to think God put this question within the human spirit from the beginning.

One tricky part of the question, though, comes in the form of another question for me.

Who is the God who put this question in our hearts? That may sound silly to you, but please follow me on this.

Actually, I believe it is the same God who asks the question to each person in the world. But it’s how we perceive God that determines how we act out the question of practical spirituality.

I remember a man whose understanding of God was so judgmental and angry that he couldn’t stand to hear me preach about a God who loves unconditionally. His daily spirituality was practical all right, but it was based on fear, on prejudice, maybe even vengeance.

I saw him as a bitter, deeply unhappy man. I honestly don’t know how he saw himself.

On the other hand, I have met countless people whose daily behavior was so very accepting of people who differed greatly from them. I’ve been humbled and transformed (a little bit anyway) in their presence.

For though we seem to have the same perception of a radically hospitable God, these people are able to live that perception more completely than I am yet able to do.

So how do you do it? Live your faith on a daily basis, I mean.

It isn’t easy for most of us.

I don’t want it said of me what’s been said of some preachers for generations: “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good.” I’ve tried never to be one whose eyes are so focused on life hereafter that I trip over someone lying in the road needing help.

I need to know my faith in God works in partnership with God’s faith in me so that good things happen to others through my daily life.

What do you believe? How does that work itself out in daily living?

Even if you don’t tell me a thing about your pragmatic spirituality, perhaps the question will be a good daily exercise for you. It certainly is for me.

xxxx

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