Windex

I was recently asked a question in regard to my previous post, “Hello”, that asked how I reconcile my mind and logical processes with my faith – and if the two compliment or oppose one another. Rather than simply replying with a comment, I thought that this question would be better addressed through the medium of another posting.
So here we go…
Before I can speak directly to the question, I feel like “mind/logical process” and “faith” must be appropriately defined. It seems as though anytime these things get discussed that the conversation turns quickly into a duality argument where logical thinking is evil, and faith is good. Either that or it goes as far as to become a discussion of “spiritual things” and “physical things”. I think it both conclusions miss the point and it’s crucial that both be avoided.

Faith…

In my experience, the definitions of faith I had been given have made little sense and been just as wishy-washy as many of the characters that gave them. I’m sure I’ll get made fun of for this, but how it’s often been explained reminds me of the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. I can’t really remember much of the movie, but I do remember this. The father of the bride in the movie, had this idea that Windex was a miracle substance that would fix any physical ailment – a cut, or scratch, a sprained ankle, you name it. He literally carried a bottle of it everywhere he went just spraying the stuff on people like crazy. It sounds ridiculous – I know. The problem though, is that it seems like what Windex was to him, faith is for so many Christians!

It’s like:
“Oh no….I’ve got a terrible problem”.
“Don’t worry about it…just spray some faith on it.”
“I did and it’s not getting better.”
“Okay….well just spray more on there this time.”
“Still nothing…”
“Well there’s not a lot we can do about it….you just don’t have enough faith…this is issue between you and God.”

I am I the only one that gets that impression? I don’t think so. I’ve even heard it said that ‘faith is the currency of the Kingdom”. So where do I get a job that pays me in faith? What is the faith price for healing cancer so I can save up? Come on guys.

Let’s make some sense of this.

Faith is simply what you get when you mix worldview and action – just ask James. A simple definition to bring it down to an application in life is that faith is choosing to have my life story be subverted by the Christian story (which concludes with God’s Kingdom fully on the earth), and then living it out. That’s what Abraham did, that’s what Paul did, and that’s what Jesus did (think about that one for a while).

So where does logical process fall into this?

Logical thought allows me to do the best job I can at pointing my faith correctly. As I said just a second ago, faith is the mixture of worldview and action. I am constantly questioning/thinking through/analyzing the way I see the world, and in that I’m building my worldview. That is accomplished by learning and processing new information, and then including it in one way or another, into my worldview. Of course, the Christian story, who Jesus was, and what He said, are all inputs into that process. It is a road that I travel down repeatedly as I am constantly discovering new things and re-evaluating things I have claimed to have known before.

Through thinking hard about the information I’ve been given, I have decided that my worldview will be dominated by the Christian story. In order then for me to have faith in that story, I must add action to the equation and practically live out that worldview. In that respect, logical thought gives me the ability to figure out what exactly the application of my worldview looks like in real life.

So…..I guess I could have faith without using logical processes to build my worldview.......but I certainly wouldn’t want to.