2023-07-20 A Meditation on Experiential Faith

“12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Pe 4:12–19 ESV)

Learning on the go, majestic vistas and humble reactions both place the Believer square in the master’s army. She or he has all ego and painstaking ambitions somehow turned Good, redeemed, and choreographed. The believer now belongs in this holy fellowship, and is flattered to know their deeds are on a world class level. Here, indeed, she or he can dwell as those Chosen and set apart, Consecrated to a holy self-possession, possessed and reactive to holy ghosts and spirits communally shared. All these are cleansed such that we can be properly inducted, ingratiated into the communal cup. There we turn a leaf over: this military calling, this footsoldier’s plea, this leader’s cohort, all serve to advance Cause and Purpose, Meaning and Call, somehow past mistakes are moot if only we can serve in God’s Army. There, we have daily food of the Spirit, and daily outlay through our at-times weary body.

For it is a meager status that today alights on the believer’s heart, meager because of overcoming that vain boast or that megalomaniacal jaunt. Somehow lightyears ahead, now, we are immune to draw near to other people with their still-possessed spirits, because ours is aloof and immune. We see each hour a new testing ground, attack coming the very moment soul alights on a high perch of newness. We practice to be unafraid and to plead with the Holy Spirit not for less but for more holy unction. So that our quiet hours of the day are electrified and ready, not presuming to be holy merely in the vanity of thought, but finding holiness in simple measures taken and quiet calm besought.

We are holy to believe truly that all ennui, all lounging about with mild boredom or manifest impatience, is both a deeper problem than we admit, and a problem with heaven-sent solution. We refuse to handle our own deep needs on our own, but bless the Lord who gave us—and sometimes it seems us alone—a post-mortem New Life. All regrets, all guilt, all evil memories: these arrive in exact proportion to the manifest but unlauded goodness sent our way from On High; we do well to invoke such goodness at all times and at every juncture. Yes, we are the rebels now forgiven. Yes, we are the ones suspicious even of our religion, among many man-made things to be suspicious of. Yet if we take an active interest, a living dynamic, a heartfelt drawing near, then we become those Ones Religious for the One on High. We no longer fear to be lumped with “that crowd” of the pompous and rather disquieted faithful. No, our faith perseveres, and starts in our own heart peeping out, renewed, redeemed, encouraged and given courage for the journey ahead.

We are unapologetic about needing such heavy medicine, that we may better face that day in the trenches, when all reason for atheism crashes down on all sides around us. There, we are those souls lightyears ahead and possessed of a spirit that thrives in dying hours, that calls us home, that perseveres here in the field for yet a few hours or days or years more. That we can cultivate a living witness unto things called Holy.