Last night was the 2020 Vice Presidential debate. I was still dealing with the trauma incurred from the Presidential debate a week before. I don’t do well with people arguing over each other. I had to get up and leave the room. Actually, I left the house for my woodshop.
In this election cycle, most of us are acutely aware of the importance the role of Vice President may have in the next four years. Having hopes of a more civil exchange and a desire to get a feel of what the potential Vice President may be like, I watched the debate. Just past the mid-way point of their dialogue, one of the candidates said, “________ and I are both people of faith.”
I take my spiritual life very seriously. My goal is not to avoid a Divine punishment or to win Divine favor, but to maximize the enjoyment of the life I have been Divinely given. Words like “faith” are significant to me. My attention is always hyped up a notch when I hear that word or any of its relatives. I left the debate mentally as I began to wonder what that word meant to the candidate. I recently read sixty-three percent of Americans surveyed[fb1] are absolutely confident that God does exist. Does that mean they are all “persons of faith?” Does it mean, “I belong to a local church” of some type? Does it denote I am a Presbyterian or Methodist or Buddhist?
Just in my lifetime, many atrocious acts of violence have been committed by people who had faith in what they believed about God. Many of them belonged to a congregation of people who hold the same “faith” they do.
Is “faith” a system of doctrinal beliefs held by like-minded people? If I hold to the doctrines of “Baptist,” would I be a person of faith? By one of the definitions of the word “faith” I would be considered a person of “a” faith. But I would not necessarily a person “of” faith as described in the Bible.
I have come to believe “faith” is not about what I have knowledge of, but about what I obey. Faith is a verb for me. It’s what I do. My “doing” finds its source in what I believe. Our actions always display the knowledge we place our faith in. If what I know is incomplete or a misunderstanding, my actions will be consistent with those flawed beliefs. Our behavior is evidence of what we believe, what we trust, what we have confidence in.
Until I know everything there is to know and am absolutely consistent with it in behavior, I am a person of flawed or, at best incomplete faith. In my understanding of faith, only Jesus, the Son of God, was a person of faith. Jesus is the personification of Biblical faith. All that He knew was complete and was consistent with all He did.
Choosing to believe that God exists means you will go to Him to understand what He says and align your actions in life to be identical to His. Anything less is not faith in Him. You can be faithful to a denomination or a political party’s ideology, but that is not “faith” in God. It may be faith “about” God, but it is not faith “in” God.
To have faith in God is to pursue Him at all times, in all ways. It is a way of life and personal identity. It is not a pine-scented cardboard tree hanging from your rearview mirror giving a satisfying aroma to your sphere of influence.
To be a person of faith in God is to trust Him. To trust Him, you must diligently seek Him. Where there is no seeking, there will be no finding. Where there is no finding, there can be no knowing. Where there is no knowing Him, there can be no trusting Him, “faithing” Him. (Remember faith is a verb here, not a noun.)
I do not believe it is possible to know God as he wants to be known without the Bible. The people I know who are “of faith” are diligent in their study of the Bible. Their purpose is not to know about God or get a blessing from God, but to know Him because He is their most valued blessing.
Whoever is elected to the presidency of the United States will be a person of faith. Where and how they attempt to lead our nation will demonstrate where their faith is placed. In God, the Creator, or the god of their beliefs.
For me, being a person of faith is to let God’s self-revelation shape my beliefs. I fear we are far better at shaping our god to accommodate our beliefs and our beliefs to indulge our desires.
Baldwin Heirlooms 