Practicing Faith - Building Benches
On Sunday afternoon, our youth built 6 benches for Camp Christian under the direction of Julian Beckwith. Thank you youth! Thank you Julian! Thank you church!
We may not keep it on the tip of our tongue, but “practice” is an important faith word. We “practice” our faith. We begin practicing our faith as early as we begin practicing life, before we have any words to describe either one.
Like so many things today, I worry sometimes that we twist up the “faith process” a bit. Sometimes I think we take a “light switch” view on things In other words, we approach “faith” like we are in a particular place, maybe like a switch with three settings.
Setting 1)We don’t know "faith"
Setting 2) We learn faith
Setting 3) Now that we know faith, and we are ready to do faith
I think there is a much better way to understand the life of faith.
A better understanding is to remember that the life of faith is actually a life of gratitude, responding to the gifts we have received from God. Each day we “practice” responding to God with gratitude. We “practice” faith. We begin “practicing” being thankful, being gracious, before we understand thankfulness or gratitude. When someone gives you something, even a glass of water, you say “thank you.” When you see a parent, a grandparent, or someone who cares for you, you say “I love you.” We are taught to do so before we understand thanks or love. We continue to practice thanks, and love, and faith as we grow and mature and develop a deeper understanding of all three.
We don’t teach faith, master faith and then practice faith. We practice faith, and along the way we learn faith, and a few of us, a very few of us, become recognized as “masters” of faith, of gratitude, of love.
This Sunday, our youth embraced a special opportunity to “practice” faith, a life of gratitude to God, by building benches for Camp Christian. It was fun. We received the gift of materials and preparation from members of our church family. We learned about wood, a part of God’s creation, like juvenile wood and mature wood, early wood and late wood (they’re not the same thing), strong wood and stronger wood. Learning about God’s creation and our relationship to it is always a holy gift to be grateful for. We built something. We got to use power tools, and “sit” on the result of our efforts. We practiced our faith through learning, and doing, and celebrating. We practiced our gratitude to God. You helped us to do so. Thank you Union Christian Church, for helping us all practice the life of faith together.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alan