Tag Archives: faith

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Mustard Seeds (Part 2)

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Mustard seeds

I would like to start this post with an apology! I wrote Part 1 of this post on September 15th 2013. (If you haven’t read it, it’s HERE) I was supposed to post Part 2 the week after, but here we are…on the 12th of January…2014.
LOL I’m sorry.

Okay, so my general premise in the last post was that sometimes I feel like thanking God for an expected end that, in your subconscious belief, may or may not have involved him is quite patronising.

I recieved some really good thinking points after my initial post and may have slightly altered my view. Right or wrong though, I still feel that we have a perceived understanding of miracles and as a result, allocate levels to them.

In a human sense, God’s healing of a blind man is seen as greater than someone passing an exam, right?

…Why?

I’ve always said that praying a “realistic” prayer is similar to going into a shop knowing that the owner has told you you can have anything you want, and sticking to only items you can afford.

I think we’ve been stacking the tin food and avoiding the cake…

Lets say I didn’t revise for an exam and failed it (God forbid!)
Most would reply with the well known statement:

“God helps those who help themselves”

I generally stand by this statement but in the same breath I wonder wether the phrase is a human reaction to the worlds discrepancies and an attempt to justify what we would otherwise consider inaction on God’s part.

I mean,

Who taught us that?
What does it even mean?
What room does this statement leave for grace?

You can only ask question when you accept you need answers. Sometimes I feel like these blanket statements stop us from understanding Gods will and purpose.

Generally these faith and blind acceptance points that I’m making are quite easy to argue against, in fact, as I write I’m thinking of rebuttals – but I think it’s important to think about these things.

(DISCLAIMER: Revise for your exams abeg, don’t go and say that Alexis said…God bless.)

Now, lets put two scenarios side by side.

A) I fail to prepare adequately for an exam, I fail.

B) I fail to prepare adequately for an exam, I pass.

According to our thinking. A’s God helps those who helps themselves. B’s God on the other hand, is all merciful.

This distinction has been made WHOLLY due to an outcome. Outcomes should either affirm belief or invoke questions, not change God’s characteristics – God just IS.

So when bad things happen do we:

A) apply worldly ability and attempt to explain why it happened

B) apply religious buffer zones to explain why it happened

C) ask God why it happened.

I don’t think any of the options are necessarily bad, I just think we need to do C more.

Instead of trying to reconcile our confusion with arbitrary statements we should try and seek explanations and solutions.

Okay, I’m done!

…Eat cake.

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Mustard Seeds (Part 1)

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I’ve recently realised that it is possible to believe in God without trusting him.

Faith is the complete relinquishing of your worldly knowledge in regards to certain factors (namely probability and human ability) in the replacement of a sometimes unjustifiable assurance.

Most of the time I think our faith is half hearted. We pray prayers that give normality as much of a chance as God to rectify our issues.

This mistake resides in fine lines, and isn’t necessarily malicious; which is why it is often overlooked.

I see it as similar to thanking the 5 year old that handed you a plaster for healing you; you don’t believe in your heart that he healed you, but you want to please him with your thanks.

We thank God and tweet about how good he is, but do we really believe that he is the sole reason for our progress?

Like…really?

I mean YOU did revise until your eyes were red, YOU did fill in every application form, YOU did smash that interview…

Success came.
You expected it.

Rightly so?

Was this faith or an acknowledgement of your human ability and the probability of a positive outcome as a result of that ability?

Blurrrrrrrrrrred liiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnesss!

I realised that prior to this week I was on either side of the spectrum. It’s quite an awkward place to be; it may or may not be the right place. But I believe that attributing an event in your life to God knowing that you could just as easily attribute it to the social norms of this world is a bit patronising.

When you see success do you see a miracle or a result?

I believe that in all things, we must give thanks, but the issue with a norm sensitive “Thank-you” is that it will affect your faith driven “Please”.

Lets take exams for example…

Person A

Takes an exam – Feels great about it – Gets an amazing grade – Thanks God.

Person B

Takes an exam – Feels it went very badly – Gets amazing grades – Thanks God.

Cool.

I’ve been both person A and person B.

The prayers and thanks offered in both scenarios were not the same. At all.

This is reality.

I prayed harder for God when I was person B.

I thanked God more when I was person B.

Why?

Because success came.
And I didn’t expect it.

Rightly so?

This, seemingly, is perfectly reasonable as it seems that society will view the power of God to be shown greater to person B.

Our reaction to both Person A and Person B’s results are worlds apart because of the power we have given to perception.

Both scenarios where identical apart from what was felt after the exam.

…so why has Person B received a bigger miracle?

If our perception of events effects our prayers and ultimately our acknowledgement of Gods involvement then, wether we like it or not, this perception has become our assurance.

Not our faith.

Passing an exam that you felt good about MUST be as miraculous as passing an exam that you felt bad about.

Your reliance must be constant.

I’ve been reading Romans lately
(bible discussion and philosophy page coming soon!) and was struck by the distinction made between the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law”. Many of us practice the letter of the law; in this sense, through ritualistic appreciation without the understanding of the spirit behind being appreciative.

(Me included yo, I no holy pass)

Let me throw a spanner in the works…

What if you didn’t revise?

What if you fail?

How do you reconcile realism with God?

Yeah…
this is where it gets hard.

Join me for Part 2 next week ;)

LETS DISCUSS:

I want to hear other people’s opinions and grow in knowledge on the subject. If you have any comments write them below or email me at mellowdic@outlook.com

See you next week.