The Problem With Faith is that whatever it is you believe in is not – in the final analysis – provable.
That’s kinda the whole point, of course; the whole reason anyone ever needs faith is because if you have proof you don’t need faith, and if you can’t have proof then all you are left with is faith.
I think that’s the reason the Apostle Paul talked about “the gift of faith”. Those who are able to believe and not struggle are gifted every bit as much as those who effortlessly create great music or effortlessly dance or effortlessly grok calculus. For the rest of us, it’s work. Sometimes not very rewarding or satisfying work either, lemme tell you.
There’s a hymn I learned growing up called “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing“; it’s one of my favorites partly because of the music, (I think it’s an old Welsh tune), but mostly because of this line:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it / Prone to leave the God I love
That’s me. And I guess it isn’t just me because someone else wrote that line, so there’s at least two of us. And I also think about a Larry Norman song I learned a zillion years ago called Song for a Small Circle of Friends. There’s a line there where Norman, speaking to his friend Randy Stonehill, says
…you’re crazy but you know it and I love you as we both crawl towards the lamp.
That’s me, too. Crazy and I know, but still crawling towards the lamp.
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