Saturday, April 30, 2022

Springtime Faith

Every time we purchase something, it’s an act of faith, isn’t it?

  • Faith is buying a thick wheel of rubber and believing it will carry a car for dozens of years.

  • Faith is purchasing medicine and expecting it will do for us what it says on the label.

  • Faith is ordering an article of clothing from a far-away place and trusting it will show up in our mailbox, fit us, last ages, and not go out of style.

Many daily activities are acts of faith:

  • sending a child to school, day after day, and hoping that they’ll learn something new.

  • moving a tiny switch on a wall in our homes and assuming it will bring light to a dark room.

  • retiring to bed at sundown, becoming unconscious, and trusting that in a few hours, the sun will rise and wake us up.

Springtime is filled with moments of faith:

  • seeing a lone robin and believing more will appear.

  • watering a patch of soil and believing green grass will pop out of the ground there.

  • planting a seed and believing it will turn into food or flowers.

Because of the past two years—a world-wide pandemic!—many of us fear going out without masks, hugging each other, or gathering. For plenty of our fellow parishioners, entering our church building for services during the preceding year was a challenging choice. And yet, scores of us have.

It’s an act of faith, isn’t it?

  • that if we sing collectively, our voices will become stronger.

  • that if we listen together, we will hear better.

  • that if we pray simultaneously, our intentions will transport further.

We have faith that if we attend church together, by zoom or by chapel, we will multiply goodness.

 

(Originally published in Mid-Week Message, First UMC Alamosa, 12 May 2021)

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