Writing Your Faith ~ Prompt 1

 

Over the coming weeks in worship, we will listen to Paul’s greatest hits ~ passages where I think Paul defines and describes a faith that is vital and vibrant and changes our life.  It is my heartfelt prayer in the coming weeks, as you hear Paul’s words each week, you might be inspired and find new insights for living today.  Paul’s letters were written to earliest followers of Jesus, trying to offer his thoughts on to how to live faithful amid the stresses and strains of daily life.  We heard this yesterday in Romans 5 and 6, how God’s grace is where we start, stand, and stay.  Grace is freely given every day, even (or especially) when things go off the rails.

While we live in a different time and place than the First Century Christians in Rome, we still long to let our faith/grace/God’s love have the first, middle, and last word.  We feel this gap between how we want to live and how we really live.  We feel a gap between what we believe about God and how we experience God.  We feel this gap between where we are in faith and where our inner critic says we should be in faith. 

I have an invitation for you this May…to write a letter of faith to your future self.  I sense I just lost some of you.  Wait, come back!  It will be okay.  Remember, Paul didn’t think he was writing scripture.  He didn’t finish the letter to the Galatians and think, “Oh, I hope this one makes it into the New Testament.”  Fingers crossed!  There was no New Testament.  He was sharing a testimony.  He was offering words that he prayed would help others.  He was opening his heart ~ albeit sometimes in less than healthy ways ~ but I think we can all agree that Paul was very human-sized. 

Too often we keep our faith inside us, but faith needs expression and to escape the confines of our minds.  We don’t talk about faith partially to protect ourselves.  We all live with a bit of imposture syndrome, that if people find out we believe that, think that, do that, we will be kicked out of the tribe.  Remember, however, that Paul says to the Romans that, “Nothing separates us from the love of God…and nothing means nothing.”  Or maybe we keep our faith understanding to ourselves because we don’t feel certain.  And isn’t that the pastor’s job to talk about faith, what are we paying him for anyway? 

There is a priesthood, or faithfulness, of all believers.  And this week, I want to encourage and invite you to write down your thoughts on faith.  These are not to be turned in for a grade, but I do hope you will share your thoughts on the prompts with me and others ~ and even better if others share with you.  Rather than responding to Paul’s words, I want to invite you to find the words of faith in you. 

Prompt #1 ~ When was the last time you felt the Holy hovering in your life?  Describe where you were, what you were doing, and how you felt.  Or, you could write about a worship service that was meaningful and why.  Or you could write about an experience when, like Paul, you were going one direction only to turn and go a different direction. 

I am asking you about a time God showed up disguised as your life.  I pray you will spend ten or fifteen minutes today responding to the prompt above and what stirs within you.  I pray even more you will share that with me.  Happy writing.