"Momentum Builds Faith, but what kind?"
Part of my own struggle in life since forever has been a tendency to assign too much reality to my own perspective. Like an author believing his own novel is real, or assuming that 'truth' is actually whatever I believe it is. Like pepper on eggs, this attitude is a little bit necessary in life. But too much of it can be pretty disastrous.
As I continue to live out and think through momentum this year, and enjoy the snapshot of what momentum looks like from yesterday's post, I feel just a little caution flag rising up inside me. I want to have faith, and through faith I want to see concepts and ideals that I believe in become reality in every area of my life. This is a good thing, and I want the momentum of this year to bring it to fruition.
Faith implies expectations. "Faith is the evidence of things hoped for..." But faith IN the expectations is a recipe for disappointment. So maybe I need to think about faith the way doctors think about cholesterol. There's good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Some of each is always present, but the plan is to decrease bad and increase good cholesterol, right?
I think the bad kind of faith can be called, "Faith in the Outcome".
I think the good kind of faith can be called, "Faith in the Process".
Faith in the Outcome can be represented by the "Name it and Claim it" crowd that believes our covenant with God gives us authority to call anything into or out of order by faith and in Jesus' name, and expect our words to have the same kind of impact as God's words when He created Light. Like Jesus calmed the storm and then turned to his disciples and criticized their lack of faith.
Faith in the Process can be represented by Daniel's statement, "We may indeed burn in your fire, O King. But we will not bow down to your image." God is with me, in me, and works through me. I will keep things right, intimate and in tune with Him, and He will direct my path. Nothing on earth is beyond His reach or exempt from His sovereignty and I know I belong to Him. The outcome be damned, I will follow Him by faith.
Placing too much faith in my own expectations has proven to be a costly and painful mistake in my life on several occasions. As momentum builds and creates faith inside of me again, I want to be careful to avoid those mistakes again. They hurt. They destroy faith and they stifle the very momentum that created the whole paradigm.
Hmmm. I think I shall need to discuss this for the next few days. Momentum is great, but I want to do the math right too.