"God has not been trying out an experiment on my faith or love to
find out their quality, he knew it already. It was I who didn't. ...He
always knew that my temple was a house of cards, his only way of making
me realize the fact was to knock it down."
I stumbled across this quote last summer in a piece of literature by C.S. Lewis titled A Grief Observed,
and can easily say that this quote is one of my favorites. It's the
kind of quote that calls you back to re-read it two or three more times.
I love that. No matter where I am in my walk with Christ-I find it is
always readily applicable. This quote puts into words what I experience
time after time. It illustrates a kind of humbling God continually hits
his people with;
A kind of humbling that I personally need more often then I would like to admit. Furthermore, this quote confronts its readers with the hard truth
that is repeated again and again in scripture - our temples and our
monuments to our faith and love are often no sturdier then a house of
cards.
This weekend,
I had the privilege of working side by side
in the front flowerbed with someone who is not only my roommate, but one
of the wisest women I know. After nearly an hour of small talk, she
took the initiative of asking me what God had been showing me in my walk
lately; a verse I had stumbled across in James came to mind almost
immediately. As a result, we began discussing faith and how it manifests
itself through action. The verse reads like this-
"What good
is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can
such faith save him? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes
and daily food. If one of you says to him 'Go. I wish you well; keep
warm and well fed’, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good
is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
action, is dead". -James 2:14-17
So often, I am guilty of a
faith and a love without action. While we are not saved by our deeds,
they reflect the heart of a person. Recently, my actions have been
saying that my faith is suffering, and that my walk is frail,
inconsistent,
and dangerously close to non-existent on a day to day basis. I cannot
count the number of times, I have told someone I would pray for them and
neglected to do so; or the many years I attended church without
tithing even once.
"Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." My
faith and my proclamation of faith is meaningless if that, in and of
itself, is all it is - just a proclamation. In this way, my faith is
dead and my love is shallow.
Just as love is an action and not an emotion, faith is not limited to just a belief. That kind of faith is
inconsistent, easily shaken, and shattered.
It is of no more use then a house of cards.
Written April 2010
