November 16, 2008

I have been thinking a lot about faith recently, and what it really means. I know "faith is the evidence of things unseen" and other definitions but I am thinking about what that REALLY means to me personally. Life in Haiti will make you think, and for me that can be a painful process! There are so many situations that you see that make you question, well, pretty much everything about what you believe. It seems to me that "faith" in some regards will develop as a thought and a concept within the context of your culture. In the US, "faith" seems to me to be a prepackaged after the fact thing. Please understand I do not mean for all, but I think this is it for many. We have faith in what has already been done, if you understand what I mean. We live in a place of prosperity and relative peace and life is really pretty easy compared to most of the rest of the world. When we come to church and the pastor speaks of faith, it is relatively easy to say to ourself "yeah, God has been good to the US, I can have faith in that". We see the circumstances around us and can believe in what God has done and it is easy to believe in that, and then to live in the consequences of that previously offered grace and blessing. We have some view for the future but based on what we have seen in the past (meaning the past few years of our own lives) we trust God to continue to do His good work for us.

When I came here, faith became a different proposition. You see things you don't see in the states. You see people in cicumstances that just don't exist for the most part in the US. It makes me think about what faith is for these people, or if they even think of faith as something to consider. I wonder how we in the US would respond to the teaching of our pastors if we lived in the circumstances that so many of the people in Haiti. The people here seem, to me at least, to live their lives day to day, even hour to hour, with no plan or attempt to accomodate their future. In some ways the attitude is likely more healthy for them as opposed to our constant worrying about virtually everything. It seems we have taken that part of life to an extreme, and to our detriment. The Haitians have taken the opposite approach it seems, and to the same extreme we have taken our worry and concern and planning for our cicumstances, many Haitians seem to have adopted the what will be, will be approach. There is some planning of course, but it does not seem to be extensive. Please don't think I am saying that no Haitians ever plan anything and just sit around all day. What I am trying to say is that their planning seems to be concerned with the next few days, at most. Long term planning for development doesn't seem to be an important issue for most people. So you wind up with schools that aren't engineered for permanence, and the results can be catastrophic. For many people it seems like their lives are engineered the same way. The local circumstances lend themselves to this, as for many the struggle is to stay alive day to day. However there are those who are successful and run businesses obviously. These folks obviously must plan for more than day to day. The street people are the ones I speak of. And I don't know if I would be any different, honestly. So circumstances lead us to change our focus I guess.

Returning to our faith question, then how easy is it to see and believe and trust in the unseen God? If God won't provide what I need NOW why should I trust him? If this God won't give me what I want now I'll seek it elsewhere. Gary asked his Bible study class what happens when people pray to God for something and then don't get it. The answer was that they go to the witch doctors. The immediacy of the issues overwhelms the trust in God. For those who believe, then the question is how to overcome the lack of trust to get to the point where we develop faith? Or maybe it is to instill faith so that trust will grow? Either way, missionaries here seem to have had little impact in doing that specific thing and I don't pretent to have any answers. Humanitarian missions have a much easier task. It is not hard to find physical needs here to respond to. The spiritual missions have an infinitely more difficult task, and one that it seems must be seperate from the humanitarian issue. Any time you mix the spiritual with the humanitarian, the Haitian will see only the humanitarian, it seems. They are focused on living and their things to the point that the spiritual focus is lost. Unfortunately, it reminds me of home so much. How can we have true faith for what God will do for us if we are only focused on the current benefits of past blessings, or the immediacy of our current needs as we see them. It seems that both those well off and those not so well off fall in to the same category of lacking a vision for the future. The Bible says that w/o a vision the people will die. So maybe we are more alike that we seem. We lose sight of the amazing things that God wants to do for us as we reduce Him to keeping us where we are (US) or in just meeting basic needs (Haiti). It seems that our human condition lends itself perfectly to losing sight of God regardless of circumstances. How can we learn to really trust in who God is if we are unwilling to step out to that undefined place of real faith, walking that high wire w/o a net, if our vision is only in keeping ourself where we are, or limit Him to just today? Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other OT prophets condemned Israel for their trust in their riches and their stuff. Recall when Jesus said to the rich man all he had to do to have eternal life was to give up his wealth and give to the poor. The rich man went away sad as he could not part with his stuff. Or likewise how can Haitians see God for who He is if all they focus on is now? In Hebrews 12 it says to make sure you are not godless or immoral like Esau who traded his birthright for a single meal, which is what I see in Haiti.

In Hebrews 11-12 it speaks of those of faith who lived for God. The writer speaks of those who overthrew kingdoms, rules with justice, shut the mouths of lions, and were strong in battle. Their weaknesses were turned to strengths (H 11:34). That is the kind of faith in what can be that I am talking about. They had weaknesses they could not trust in their immediate condition but God make them more than they could be alone, without Him. Immediately after this it recites those who trusted God also but were tortured, mocked, ridiculed, beaten, oppressed and mistreated, often martyred. They were too good for this world. So the walk of faith does not seem to me to be about effecting our circumstances, but about our faith regardless of the circumstances. The faith is not in how we are blessed but in who God is, and in trusting in Him.

"Enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" Matthew 7: 13/14. I guess this means more to me now that it did before. Coming to Haiti I thought I could help change some things. I guess I am the one being changed more than anything else. bye for now.