Saving faith?

Greg Jemmett 30 Aug 2020

When the word faith is mentioned, many people can start to become anxious that they're about to be proselytised or even critiqued for expressing a personal belief. This article doesn't intend either, nor is it an attempt to repurpose a word which is fundamental to how we relate as human beings to others and the world around us.

We can have faith in many things: our cellphone giving us the right time of day, the advice of a professional being sound, the unconditional love of a friend, partner or furry friend, our own ability to tackle a difficult task ahead, the purpose of our life, or even that we'll receive our salary on time.

We might also choose to have faith in unreliable circumstances or individuals: a scam artist who promises unrealistic returns on an investment, a serially unfaithful or abusive partner, a populist leader without integrity or a gimmicky online shopping diet pill.

So then it's not the matter of faith itself which is the issue, but the object of our faith. And I don't think faith is a static thing, it points our feet in a certain direction to journey further into it, so we grow up in it, either to our betterment or unfortunate ruin.

Many of us have had tremendous turmoil and anxiety in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic because so many knowns have shifted to maybes or even unknowns: job security, our own health and those of our family members and friends, the return to the normality we knew prior to lockdown, and what a post COVID 19 world would look like. Our faith and our feelings have been shaken. However, despite the strong emotive tone of what I've just mentioned, we would do well to remember that faith is not feelings, nor should it be based entirely on our feelings. Our feelings may be fickle, transient and unreliable, but our faith doesn't have to be. In fact it ought not to be. It's often in those times of fluctuating feelings that we have the opportunity to work out our faith, because despite what some would have us believe, faith isn't irrational, but it can certainly transcend our rational minds, and it can be arrived at in a manner which not only cleared defined by logic, but should always be undergirded with wisdom if it is to be the best kind.

No mention of faith can be made without the mention of doubt. There certainly is a kind of radioactive doubt, which causes us to be skeptical about everything, but I think this is more a kind of attitude than a real intent to get to the truth and find what is trustworthy. I recall an extreme and ridiculous example of this in an episode of 'Blackadder Goes Forth' in which Private Baldrick is instructed by Captain Blackadder to deny everything, in the sense of any wrongdoing in an upcoming court martial. Baldrick takes this to heart and proceeds to deny even his own name and various other obvious realities during cross examination. Hilariously frustrating, but true to my point. As much as we can interrogate our faith to weigh what is true and of worth, so it is true also of our doubts to discover which are reasonable, and which are rather more visceral reactions or even cognitive biases.

Much has been said of the rethinking of our realities during COVID 19, and I would echo the tired cliche to 'not waste a good crisis' as a time of reassessment. There may well be uncomfortable truths to face and digest, and also shedding of tears along with our faith in very transient and unreliable factors. But it might well be that during this process, or set of processes, that more valuable and life affirming matters come to life. Deeper and more solid truths which wouldn't have been foremost in our mind if our perceptions hadn't been forced to shift and expose other factors to take into account.

So then in a world of crippling doubt which causes paralysis, rather choose faith. Do your best to ascertain if it's the saving kind, because only that will take you on a journey of resilience, growth and hope.