In a stressful season it’s common to hear friends, family members, and others speak of “losing faith”. And honestly, outside of being in an actual war when have times been any more stressful than the past two years? I’d like to present my ideas about the phrase losing faith and what I think it actually infers.

First, my layman’s definition of faith: Faith is belief put into action. The word is hard to define, but like love itself is made tangible through tangible actions. I’m reminded of the line in Contact, where Palmer Joss asked Jodie Foster’s character, Ellie Arroway, did she love her (deceased) father and then asked her to prove it when she replied “Yes, very much.”

If faith could be bottled and sold, tucked away, and perhaps mislaid in the bowels of one’s orphaned sock drawer, then yes I suppose it could be “lost”. But I’m recently led to believe a more nuanced view of the subject: namely, one’s faith is determined by one’s actions at least as much as one’s actions are determined by faith.

As with many spiritual matters, an analogy will make this point clearer. Let’s use the parable of the sower found in Matthew 13:1-9. In nine verses Jesus relays to his disciples a tale of one action (seed being sown) with four vastly different outcomes. In one instance, the seed is gobbled up by birds. In another example the seed falls onto stony ground and is unable to sufficiently take root. Yet again, the seed lands among thorns where it’s choked out of existence. Finally, the desired result occurs in Matthew 13:8:

⁸ But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

What is left implied for the reader is that good soil takes work to create and maintain. A gardener who weeds, feeds, and waters is putting belief into action (in other words, showing faith). If you don’t believe taking care of your garden will produce a crop of tasty plants, there’s scarcely any reason to put in the work. With that understanding, if you stop watering your garden and all the plants die, did you lose your faith? Hold that thought—the better question to answer is did you stop believing that taking care of your garden would produce a good crop? If the answer to the second question is no, then you have not lost faith. You have neglected your duties as a gardener.

Of course, my belief flies in the face of those like Rebecca Gummere, whom I suppose might argue they tended their garden with demonstrable care only to reap lamentable results. My heart goes out to her and the untold others who have experienced a loss that defies understanding and challenges belief in an ever merciful God. But as someone working on my relationship with God and building a framework of salvation, I stand by my interpretation.

However, I’m not immune to the struggle to find purpose and hope in the middle of chaos and desperation. I too often find myself looking down instead of up, where “redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28) In fact, questions and answers surrounding the abundance or lack of faith are personal to each of us and actually transcend the spiritual realm. Why else would you keep showing up for work or flipping light switches on when you want there to be light. Faith is not only relegated to belief in a deity, it exists when you place your belief in anything (man, science, God). At every turn, those beliefs are being challenged.

Understanding that faith isn’t passive has helped me create a plan of action for when my faith is strained. It comes down to three questions:

• What have I recently done to grow my faith?
• Have I seen examples in my life of faithfulness being rewarded?
• Do I believe Romans 8:28?

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

In the final analysis, I don’t believe faith should depend on understanding every detail of God’s plan for your life. (At times you’ll still try.) It shouldn’t waver with evolving mores or shifting doctrinal interpretations. (Remember God’s word is unchanging; man’s self-serving justifications are unending.) And if you ever lose faith, follow that sage advice of looking in the last place you left it. With diligent seeking it’s bound to return.

Most of us who don’t work on weekends usually think of Friday as good. But of the 52 Fridays every year has, only one can be the best. Is it the one where you were told you got the promotion? Is it the one your SOS proposed to you? Or maybe it was the one when you found a $5 bill tucked in the couch.

Or could it be the one Friday we celebrate when the sinless Lamb of God died once so we could live forever.

⁶ For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. ⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. ¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Rom 5:6-10)

Yeah… Best. Friday. Ever.

John 3:16