Blind Faith

“Churches that God likes to go to are churches where they’re jumping up and down, shouting his name, and just praising him. They’re not quietly worshipping. They’re like ‘HALLELUJAH GOD!’ And Depending on how they invite him, he’ll be there or not.”

I haven’t seen “Jesus Camp” (which I learned about through this Of News and Note story) but today I was researching it a little, just trying to figure out what was going on with it, how even-handed the film really is, when I heard that quote from a 10-year old girl.

I actually grew up going to a Christian Camp like this every summer. I went ever since I was a little baby and even had the fortune to work at the same camp when I finally was old enough. While my own experiences seem more akin to the worship services from “Saved!,” I forget that I was definitely at camp well before I was old enough.

I was baptized at 10 in the freezing pond in those mountains, because I thought it was something that I ought to do. I thought I knew what it meant to love God. But when I grew up and went to another summer event, a Christ In Youth Conference, I regretted my early decision. I knew that I had been much too young. I didn’t know what “sacrificing my life” really meant. I didn’t know what it was like to truly give up your life for God. It’s something I’m still learning about today.

That’s why hearing these words from a 10 year old girl is frightening. How can she possibly know God like this? How can she make such a bold claim as to where God is when she’s at such an impressionable age?

Everything else aside (I’ll probably do a full review of the movie once I see it), how can anyone, let alone a 10 year old think such a thing?

If we review our trusty Bibles, this is hardly ever the case. Yes, Jesus was flocked by crowds and crowds of people. But when it came right down to it, he preferred to be in a crowd of the unaccepted. The people who had problems with their faith. Peter could hardly stand on the water without sinking, despite how many miracles he saw.

It set me thinking, if the above statement isn’t true, then where is God? Where does he choose to be? I believe there is a big difference between putting on a huge show and being truly faithful. There is a quiet desperation that fills my mind everytime I speak with God. I know he exists, but I have problems because I can’t hear him. So I plead with him. Sometimes I even doubt He has a great plan. But the doubt makes me stronger. That doubt fills me with confidence that He is here. It isn’t just endorphins rushing through my body that I claim to be the Holy Spirit anymore. I’m past that.

It’s better, I believe, holding onto God’s hands without getting high on endorphins or singing loudly.

Because if God is only around us when we are loudly praising Him, why aren’t there more people wandering around with their microphones? Why even leave the house? If you ever went to work, God would leave you. If you went to bed? God wouldn’t be there.

No. It just can’t be that way. God is with us everywhere, all the time. Even when we don’t feel Him, he grasps at our shoulders. He hugs us tightly when we’re doubting. He knows we’ll come back to Him. Even those who don’t know to praise his name, he smiles on. Calls them friend.

I don’t think there’s anyway I would have known that without knowing what it is to doubt. I believe that having “Blind Faith” is a lot more difficult and much more rewarding when you know what you are denying by blinding yourself. Sadly, it takes years for a child to grow up and learn all the horrors, all the questions that plague the mind. They may have strong faith, but they have no reason to disbelieve.

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Filed under The-Wrestling
09/08/06 03:47 PM
by The Beau

April says (Sep 9, 09:37 AM ):
A couple of months ago, I blogged about the multiple personalities of my faith. I alternate between Peter’s passion and Thomas’ doubt. I LOVE the story of Thomas. I doubted for a long time, but God patiently and slowly pulled me back. The comfort I find in Thomas’ story is that Jesus had the compassion to go to Thomas, to urge Thomas to touch his wounds for proof of who he was. When I feel my faith wavering, I need to have enough faith to ask God to come to me and show me what he knows I need to keep going.

The 10-year-old girl you quoted sounds like me as a young Christian. I was so sure of my faith as a child, but the truth was that I had faith in my parents’ faith. I never made it my own. I’m on a pre-teen ministry team now, and that’s our focus: challenge them NOW to own their faith so it won’t crash in a few years.

Judgment is also a sign of immaturity. She thinks she knows what a true Christian looks like, but with time, I pray that she will open her eyes to who Christ really is. People think of blind faith as shutting out everything but God; I think it’s closing your eyes to who God showed himself to be through Christ’s life.

(Sorry for the long comment. I get carried away on this subject.)
Benton Quest says (Sep 10, 09:19 PM ):
I have wondered if we misunderstand what is meant by being “born again?” People look at it as this (easy) event of “accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.”

But birth is a painful, bloody, messy event. And when we are born, we do not just enter a wonderful world. We enter a world of bright, cold, harsh, light and sound.

Maybe being born again is the breaking away from the easy belief in the law-driven God and into the world of the graceful, loving, forgiving God? Maybe being born again is the process of weathering the trials of life and developing a greater appreciation of the radical love we find in God.
vincent says (Nov 13, 11:09 PM ):
damn. when i saw “blind faith” i thought this was about the band. oh well.

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