Faith Like an Adult July 16, 2009
Posted by Matt in Christian Beliefs.Tags: god, service, faith, Divine Inspiration, morality, children, adults, personal salvation
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I’ve got three kids, ages 6, 4, and 6 months, and I am often amazed at their propensity toward belief, especially when it comes to God. If you ask them (well if you ask the older two, Jackson will just smile and say, “Blaaaahhhh!) about God and Jesus or Adam and Eve or a worldwide flood or the tower of Babel or the parting of the Red Sea, they would answer that of course it actually happened because the Bible says so. In their eyes good and evil have distinct definitions and all things fall into one or the other. Though they certainly have times of kindness toward others, their actions are primarily self-serving, with one’s personal well-being seen as the highest good. Many would look at this and proclaim that this is exactly what Jesus requires us to do, to have faith like a child in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Then there are others, like me, who are thankful to not fulfill this “requirement.” We do not blindly accept things as fact or as divinely inspired, but instead look to scriptures and claims of inspiration with a critical eye. We do not hold to a black and white moral paradigm, but instead to one consisting mainly of gray, one that recognizes the existence of nuance. We have done away with the selfish motivation of declaring our ultimate goal in life to be our personal salvation and instead embrace a view that does not focus on the afterlife and what it may hold, but instead hones in on a life of service and on what we can do to make this world a better place for everyone else.
So, you can keep the faith of a child. I’ll take the faith of an adult.
When Jesus talked about having faith like a child, I believe he was referring to the complete trust children (who have been raised in a loving home) have in what an adult tells them is true. My kids accept what I say as bedrock truth–they don’t even think to question it. I believe that’s what God wants us to do with him, too. Not that he can’t handle questions–the Bible is full of “faithful” people who, so very human, could not help but ask the toughies. But I think He is so pleased when we just accept what he says, whether or not we can work it out ourselves, whether or not it “makes sense” to us. That’s child-like faith. Child-like selfishness is something entirely different. Child–like faith calls us to serve, to love my neighbor as myself and to put him even above myself, to take the role of a servant, as Jesus modeled for me and encouraged me to do as he did. Maybe we’re arguing semantics here, but I’ll take the child-like faith–trusting God completely. That includes service. And we’re encouraged to fix our eyes on the prize set before us–that IS the afterlife, a time when there won’t be any faith required any more, because the object of my faith will be right there in front of me!