Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
Faith is at the core of the Christian experience. It is faith that drives us towards our service to God.
Faith is not an easy thing to explain. Because I believe in what isn’t seen and even teach that belief, that makes me a mystic. I know that there is no rational explanation of what I believe.
But that is not unusual. The vast majority of us do not understand electricity, yet we expect the lights to turn on when we hit the switch. The extreme vast majority haven’t a clue as to how the computer works, yet here we are, all logged on and doing stuff. Most of us don’t have any idea of how a car works or our television set, or even the radio, not to mention faxes and telephones.
Yet we use them daily and don’t give them a second thought. We have faith in their ability to do what we ask of them. When they don’t we are surprised.
A guy is in the basement charging my landlord a boatload of money to unplug the sewer because we all just take a sewer for granted. I mowed my yard last Friday because my lawnmower started. Since I am a non-mechanical guy, if it had not started, I would have informed it of its place in the universe and which of the afterlives it would probably inhabit, but I probably couldn’t fix it.
We operate on faith 24/7 in just about every aspect of our lives. Yet when it comes to God, we balk. Well, someone says, I just don’t trust having faith in something I cannot see. Yet they type that on the computer while watching TV, neither of which you probably understand either.
I give myself to God freely. And I believe in him freely. He is my God and I will ever serve him.
Do I understand him? No. quite frankly, any god I could understand wouldn’t really be worth worshipping as God. Any time you can reduce anything down to its understandable components, you have removed the mystery.
I can learn to understand my computer, my car, my TV, my lawnmower – they are, after all, just things. I will never understand fully my God. I may come to a knowledge of him and his will and nature, I may come to know him and his ways. But I will never understand him. He is God. He is Other than me. He is greater than me. I can never fully know him nor understand him.
So I fix my eyes on him and I am renewed day by day. He is eternal, where I am just temporary. I’ll leave one day. He will never leave.
Personally, I like it that way. Those Greek and Roman gods that were just really big and strong people, petty and lustful and mean-spirited, those guys and gals were miserable. And they reduced the culture that worshipped them.
The worship of the Almighty God lifts the culture that worships him. They have given themselves to One who is far greater than they ever could be. And they are better for it.
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