I recently had the occasion to re-read parts of a book that I enjoyed years ago. I picked up Sharon Daloz Parks’ book, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, first published in 2000. In essence the book deals with the question how people---and especially young people---think about faith and the role faith plays in helping people make sense out of their lives. She spends a good amount of time in her second chapter helping the reader understand just what that word, faith, means. Of course, it is a word used by most of us in many different contexts.
If we are religious, we probably think faith is the common way to talk about how we believe there is a God and, probably, somehow God loves us, protects us, and wants the very best for us. She captures well the old-fashioned meaning of faith with which I grew up. Faith “is the assumption that it is essentially static. You have it or you don’t.” As a kid, I remember the people who would go to a revival service and “get it.” They believed; they got faith and they got saved. I don’t want to make light of this. I am sure life-changing experiences happened that led to very positive spiritual results. But it was not my experience.
I didn’t have adequate language then, but what seemed to work for me was an understanding of faith as process—rather than event. For me faith was more evolutionary. It evolved slowly and created more of a developmental direction for me. I was never absolutely sure where I was going. But then, that is what faith is---it is learning to trust the process. It meant learning to trust that somehow God was in the process, supported the process, and even was a companion on the process.
Now I live in an age and deal with young people who often claim they are “spiritual, but not religious.” Often it is difficult for them to articulate precisely what this means, but they are saying they are not doing religion the way many of us older people did religion. Parks helps me understand something about how they may be going about the faith journey. One sentence in particular stood out that helps me begin to see that my experience of faith as a process has relevance. Parks says, “Faith is a dynamic phenomenon that undergoes transformation across the whole life span, with the potential for a particularly powerful transformation in the young adult years.”
She goes a bit further to show how faith has an incredibly creative function in how we live our lives. I am sure this is true, even if our faith is not in some kind of God or Divine figure.
She tells us “faith is integral to all of life. It is a human universal; it shapes both personal and corporate behavior. It is related to meaning, trust, and hope.” It is important to me to understand how faith is related to meaning, trust, and hope. It is difficult to see how anyone can live fully without those qualities in their lives.
Parks uses a phrase later in the chapter that instructs us. She talks about humans as “meaning-makers.” In effect, she acknowledges that we don’t come into this world with a meaning gene and automatically have meaning unfold in our lives. Rather, each of us in our own way begins to make sense of life---to make meaning. Meaning includes the elements of trust and hope she previously identified. Without meaning and the twin concepts, trust and hope, life would be pointless and full of despair.
Most of us need our faith to grow if it is to continue to make sense. Indeed, Parks talks about a “worthy” faith. For her “A worthy faith must bear the test of lived experience in the real world---our discoveries and disappointments, expectations and betrayals, assumptions and surprises. It is in the ongoing dialogue between self and world, between community and lived reality, that meaning---a faith---takes form.” What this means to me is worthy faith has to stand the test of time. It has to help us cope with and, ultimately, make sense of whatever happens to us in life. That is the function of faith.
What happens to us in life is both predictable and unpredictable. Predictably, we will die and maybe all the rest is up for grabs. Faith functions to help us make sense of this. For me personally faith includes a God who continues to care for me and want the very best. I remember someone once said, God is not some “cosmic bell-hop.” Rather for me, God is more like a deep, loving energy which pulls me into a future that will have the characteristics of the kingdom, as Jesus proclaimed it.
Ultimately, my faith is in a God who helps me, my neighbors and all the world to figure out how to live in peace and harmony. We will opt for love, instead of lashing out at each other. As I tell students, I want to see us all learn how to make miracles instead of messes! That is the function of faith.
Faith functions to help me see myself as a miracle and to be a miracle-maker in this world. I trust that can be.
If we are religious, we probably think faith is the common way to talk about how we believe there is a God and, probably, somehow God loves us, protects us, and wants the very best for us. She captures well the old-fashioned meaning of faith with which I grew up. Faith “is the assumption that it is essentially static. You have it or you don’t.” As a kid, I remember the people who would go to a revival service and “get it.” They believed; they got faith and they got saved. I don’t want to make light of this. I am sure life-changing experiences happened that led to very positive spiritual results. But it was not my experience.
I didn’t have adequate language then, but what seemed to work for me was an understanding of faith as process—rather than event. For me faith was more evolutionary. It evolved slowly and created more of a developmental direction for me. I was never absolutely sure where I was going. But then, that is what faith is---it is learning to trust the process. It meant learning to trust that somehow God was in the process, supported the process, and even was a companion on the process.
Now I live in an age and deal with young people who often claim they are “spiritual, but not religious.” Often it is difficult for them to articulate precisely what this means, but they are saying they are not doing religion the way many of us older people did religion. Parks helps me understand something about how they may be going about the faith journey. One sentence in particular stood out that helps me begin to see that my experience of faith as a process has relevance. Parks says, “Faith is a dynamic phenomenon that undergoes transformation across the whole life span, with the potential for a particularly powerful transformation in the young adult years.”
She goes a bit further to show how faith has an incredibly creative function in how we live our lives. I am sure this is true, even if our faith is not in some kind of God or Divine figure.
She tells us “faith is integral to all of life. It is a human universal; it shapes both personal and corporate behavior. It is related to meaning, trust, and hope.” It is important to me to understand how faith is related to meaning, trust, and hope. It is difficult to see how anyone can live fully without those qualities in their lives.
Parks uses a phrase later in the chapter that instructs us. She talks about humans as “meaning-makers.” In effect, she acknowledges that we don’t come into this world with a meaning gene and automatically have meaning unfold in our lives. Rather, each of us in our own way begins to make sense of life---to make meaning. Meaning includes the elements of trust and hope she previously identified. Without meaning and the twin concepts, trust and hope, life would be pointless and full of despair.
Most of us need our faith to grow if it is to continue to make sense. Indeed, Parks talks about a “worthy” faith. For her “A worthy faith must bear the test of lived experience in the real world---our discoveries and disappointments, expectations and betrayals, assumptions and surprises. It is in the ongoing dialogue between self and world, between community and lived reality, that meaning---a faith---takes form.” What this means to me is worthy faith has to stand the test of time. It has to help us cope with and, ultimately, make sense of whatever happens to us in life. That is the function of faith.
What happens to us in life is both predictable and unpredictable. Predictably, we will die and maybe all the rest is up for grabs. Faith functions to help us make sense of this. For me personally faith includes a God who continues to care for me and want the very best. I remember someone once said, God is not some “cosmic bell-hop.” Rather for me, God is more like a deep, loving energy which pulls me into a future that will have the characteristics of the kingdom, as Jesus proclaimed it.
Ultimately, my faith is in a God who helps me, my neighbors and all the world to figure out how to live in peace and harmony. We will opt for love, instead of lashing out at each other. As I tell students, I want to see us all learn how to make miracles instead of messes! That is the function of faith.
Faith functions to help me see myself as a miracle and to be a miracle-maker in this world. I trust that can be.
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