By Faith

Thursday, December 9, 2022

Traveling on vacations with my parents and sisters when we were growing up often held opportunities for good conversations. I remember this once-or-maybe-twice-a-year uninterrupted time with both parents, with miles to go before we slept. Sitting here, decades later in early December 2022, I’m wishing for one more of those precious conversations today. I’m wondering about the difference between active and passive verbs and whether there really is a difference. I’m thinking about nouns that somehow feel like verbs. I’m not needing an academic answer (Miss Heath did her best with me in 10th grade English), I’m just thinking about the notion of faith.
 
Priestly theologian, Richard Rohr wrote that faith can’t be contained in creeds. He reminded us that faith means too much to only `live in our heads.’ Instead, Rohr wrote, “God can only be loved and known in the act of love…Love is like a living organism, an active force-field upon which we can rely, from which we can draw, and we can allow to pass through us.”
 
Traveling on this December journey invites us into precious conversations, invites us to wonder and wander with memories and prayers, with wishes and dreams for what can be next. These companions can nudge and reassure us along the way. As I’ve been left- and right-footing these Advent days, I’ve been mindful of all that has happened in this past year. Faith has been a noun. It both held me and held on to me. Time after time faith has also presented herself as a verb. It has guided and energized me in her way of moving in and through me. I’ve been mindful of so many moments when my faith participated with sleeves rolled up and my best-self leaning in.
 
The words from the Epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 11 are whispering to me this day: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The chapter goes on to name folks who stepped out in faith: “By faith Abel…; by faith Enock…; by faith Rahab…”
 
Today I am reflecting on ways I stepped out with faith and in faith. By faith I retired, by faith I moved to CA and Lori welcomed me home, by faith I am beginning this third chapter… Our lists, yours and mine, are not the same. Each experience her own. Each story, his to share. And somehow our faith journeys walk side-by-side. Sometimes sharing long stories, sometimes just sharing a word or two. Precious conversations all. As we make our way through these growing-darker nights, it matters that we name and claim our noun-moments and verb-moments of faith.
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Prayer
In the night as I gaze at the stars in their flight,
Although nothing is said in response to their flight,
I can see many things that remain out of sight.
It is faith that I find it is gentle and kind.
It gives light to the blind and sweet peace to the mind.
~ from Spoon River Anthology

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