Belief and Faith… the difference

          I used tothink that belief and faith were somehow the same, synonyms even.  But, now I see that belief is a system whilefaith is something else.

          Belief has certain aspects of trust and assurance, that can play out into doctrines or principles.  It can govern our behavior systematically.  We can test each other on what we believe and whether we believe correctly.  We can challenge each other to believe more, strongly or intensely or widely or wisely.  The variety of beliefs that fill our lives can be both known and unknown, even to ourselves, and so we can act superstitiously, creating patterns or practices in how we approach our experiences.  We believe in something or how we should act so that we get an expected or hoped for response.

          This is whywhen I heard Jesus call the disciples “little faiths” in Matthew 8:26 or saysthat they just need “faith like a mustard seed” (Luke 17:6) or when he wondersif he’ll find “faith on the earth,” (Luke 18:8) when he returns at the end,that he was referring to their belief.  Iread this as him calling on them to intensify their belief, get stronger inpractices.  But I’ve come to see that heis talking about a different thing here.

          The thing that was different about Jesus, from the rest of humanity, was his relationship with God.  And that’s the way I’ve started thinking about faith.  Faith is a relationship.  And that makes it a two-way experience.  When I’m in relationship with someone my actions, purposes, attitudes, the whole atmosphere of my being is mixed into that relationship.  I act a certain way because of who they are, who they are to me and who I am to them.  This is faithfulness. It begins to create who I am.  I can believe that a chair can hold me and sit on it, but I have no relationship with the chair.  I have a trust or believe in the structure of the chair.  When I have faith it is a relationship that is intricately woven with my character and not just my actions. I can believe that if I always put my shoes on the same way, right one first, left one second, that I’ll have a better day, but it requires no relationship with someone.

          Faithfulness in a relationship is different than belief in the structure of a chair or a pattern of superstition.  It is a mixture of what I will be with the way another is with me.  Faith includes that response within me.  It is expressed in my desire to know and learn the other intimately and to act according to what I learn and understand.  When there is a increasing degree of faithfulness my character changes and that is expressed within my choices.  People may see a faithful person and suggest that they have a strong belief, but the truth is they are living with someone, in a relationship that is creating the manner of their lives.  They don’t just trust or believe that someone will act a certain way or be a certain kind of person, they are growing into a different nature themselves because of their relationship with this other person.

          This is whywe can see a change in people who put their faith in a scoundrel as well as asaint who puts their faith in God.  Theyare allowing their characters to be shaped by the relationship.  I think Jesus was talking about a differentthing.  He was talking about the kind of relationshipAbram had with God (Genesis: 15:6) that changed him.

Blessings (they’re all around us),Geoff