How Do You Marry "High Faith" and "Embracing Reality"?

A big part of my emotional landscape--as many of you know, and many of you are right at the center of--has been filled with a good friend fighting a battle with cancer that hasn't been going well.  Lots and lots and lots of people have been praying for him, often heroically (long fasts and the like).  He's gone to any notable prayer hotspot we're aware of to get prayer (Kansas City, Redding, Lakeland, Georgia--to name four).

And so this raises plenty of big questions.  Many folks involved have, themselves, lost friends or family members to cancer, and so this touches a nerve. 

But, if nothing else, it seems to raise the challenge of holding two warring things at the same time--the kind of high faith that will persevere in prayer and faith, and the ability to suffer without clear answers.  Many faith traditions are good at one of those two things. 

I've been well-grilled in a take on the Bible that perhaps can help here, one which focuses on the phrase "the now (or sometimes "the already") and the not yet."  The gist of this is that, because of Jesus' announcing that "the kingdom of heaven is near" when he began his ministry, we now have a kind of access to heavenly realities that we didn't before.  Because of this, we can pray and we might well see someone get healed or released from a kind of oppression.  On the other hand, because we're not actually in heaven (where there won't be any problems like, say, aggressive cancers), some problems will remain.

The power of this perspective in my experience is that it can encourage robust faith even as it allows for suffering and seemingly unanswered prayer. 

It seems to me that--whether this is the ticket or not--the kind of faith we talk about here needs some mechanism like this.  Because we really have nothing to offer if we fall off on one side or the other.  If we're high-faith but blind to suffering, we've left the real world (and certainly we've left the secular world).  If we dismiss high faith and embrace the world as fundamentally hard and painful, we can write many a great, bleak novel that will get some great reviews in the Times, but we'll have very little to offer on the faith front.  It has to be a both/and.

What have you found helpful in staying in this tension?

Comments

[Titi]

I think standing in this tension always reminds me of two things (or maybe remembering these two things allows me to stand in this tension):

1. God is a real person, with true power but a genuine will, not a force that follows certain prescribed laws. The "problem of evil/suffering" therefore is less a philosophical one than an inter-personal one.

2. There is conversely genuine, personal evil in the world, some of it from humans, some from other spiritual beings. This evil also has power, some of that power reaching far into other realms including biological processes. (This could be as natural as genetic issues, man-made like environmental toxins, or outright demonic activity.)

So the whole picture involves an awful lot of personality, and as you might expect, a ton of conflict. I never quite put this together before, but the Greg Boyd "God at War" stuff actually does mesh well with the C. S. Lewis "Great Divorce" stuff at this point. The war in Boyd's terms is steadily progressing towards the infinite closeness of heaven and the infinite distance of hell is Lewis' terms.

A refreshing picture in some ways, but also horribly complicated, and it's really quite tempting to live with a simpler picture of God and the world around us. But the complexity is probably the only thing that keeps me truly engaging with God on a regular basis.

[jimmo]

This passage from 2 Samuel 12 came to mind the other day concerning this topic:

15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.

18 On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, "While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate."

19 David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked.
"Yes," they replied, "he is dead."

20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.

21 His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!"

22 He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.' 23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."

What we are struggling for here is FAITH in the context of unanswered prayer. In 1 John 5 it says, "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." In other words FAITH IS THE VICTORY. It doesn't bring the victory, meaning, the results as we want them. Our faith IS the victory. That is the struggle. Which also means we embrace DISCOMFORT in all its manifestations as a necessary component of that struggle.

[Crispin Schroeder]

This is a tough one that I have been wrestling with a good bit in recent years. In the past year we have had 3 friends - a 50 year old, a 40 year old, and most recently a 17 year old all die from cancer. They were all committed Christians who fought and believed up until the end for God to heal them.

While I have found the "Now and the not yet" emphasis particularly in Vineyard churches to be extremely helpful in dealing with these issues it is a little problematic as it seems to me in recent years to be used mare as a reason for why the kingdom isn't seen in it's fullness rather than for how God's future is breaking in to the present (this is just my own personal experience so I am by no means trying to stereotype the whole movement). While this is helpful a negative argument can only do so much for stirring up faith. I don't mean to sound negative on this because this has been tremendously helpful particularly since I have experienced a whole lot of the hyper-faith deny reality stuff in my years as a Christ follower. My experience with the Now and The Not Yet explanation is that while it is great theology it sometimes doesn't lead to a passionate faith that will keep persevering in spite of the odds. This may just be me though.

I have found Greg Boyd's (God at War) stuff very helpful in these issues as well. The idea that we are actually in a war-zone and should expect that things are going to be really rough, that people are going to get hurt has given some much needed umph! to the Now-and-the-Not-Yet theology . Boyd's framing of these ideas have really helped motivate me more in dealing with suffering and pain because they put things in more of a context that demands action (if that makes any sense).

[bsergott]

Titi, I love your comment. I think we all want the simple, black and white formulaic Christianity from time to time. It is so much easier to think that, if we pray, it will happen. And then if it doesn't happen in the face of prayer, we write it off as a lack of faith or indigestion, or some such thing.

As a part of the Vineyard churches, I have watched the rise of the Redding folks, as they seek the power of God. I have kind of shook my head, because I have felt like they focused too much on the Kingdom Now, and not at all on the "Not Yet". But then I came up short as I realized that in my own tribe, we focus way too much on the "Not Yet". We have lost a lot of our expectancy that God will show up.

I believe that it is not a battle between being spiritually focused and being grounded in reality. The lines are much more blurred than that. The Kingdom reality is a relational reality. There is not a framework, formula, or rules. There is only relationship with a dynamic, living God. There is always tension in relationships, because both sides are not static, and the relationship is not in a vacuum. Faith is not believing that God answers prayers from time to time. Faith is about diving into the deep end of fathomless mystery that utterly confounds us and profoundly sustains us at the same time. I can think of nothing more confusing and incredible.

How does that answer the question of desperate prayers in the face of life-threatening illness? I am not sure it does, but I am also not sure I want it to. Why do people die of cancer? Why did the Holocaust happen? Why do some get miraculously healed and others don't? Faith is about looking those questions in the eye, without clean answers, and still declaring that God is good.

[Paul]

I feel like I've been invited to consider again and again...is God good...meaning does a relationship with Him offer me anything of personal benefit. By choosing to stand in faith I've been able to see (so far) that what God offers me (my experience so far)...as I stand vulnerable receiving what is offered...is good.

I just said again last night that I'm getting to the place that I want what God offers over my own plans for my life. I used to think that meant God would give me what I wanted (heh), but now I can imagine walking with peace even with a more humble outcome. I can merely imagine it (which is new for me), but I have no real idea. I don't have a lot of peace walking with another who has cancer, for example...its just painful. Although as I think about it I'm experiencing more intimacy in relationship.

Recognizing that now merely affects my decisions in the moment...whether or not to trust God in some risky thing. I appreciate Jim's comment above...I wonder if Faith IS the outcome I seek.

[Marcia]

I agree with what bsergott wrote and was struck by the comment about losing expectancy that God will "show up" in response to praying for the power of God.

A few years ago, I went through a very emotionally distressing time when a family member had surgery that didn't go as expected. While everything has now resolved positively, going through it was horrid. I even wondered if "this is what it feels like to lose my faith." But instead of losing my faith, I was learning that God shows up in ways that I haven't experienced Him before (go figure).

I recently read a commentary on 1 Kings 19 that said when God "showed up" as a "still, small voice," the Hebrew means something akin to "the sound of silence." I don't know how Elijah expected God to show up, but at least he recognized God. I appreciate a "stage 4" faith where all the dimensions of God - from His power to His silence - are acknowleged and recognized as places to look for God's glory and wrestle with the mystery of knowing Him.

[Charles]

This is my first post on this blog. It will probably reveal some ignorance on my part, but I’m hopeful my participation is helpful!

The explanations of the “now and not yet” theology haven’t convinced me of the validity of the theology or its implications. I say that quickly so you can tell a little of where I’m coming from.

It seems to me that the overriding principle, or at least the apparent expressions, supports that those who emphasize the “Kingdom now” implications exercise greater faith in asking for “greater things;” that without the “Kingdom now” understanding, individuals are stuck in a life of stagnation not accessing the heavenly realities. Is it good to measure our faith by the extravagance of what we are asking God for?

I agreed with what Jimmo had to say. I liked the passage referenced and I think it lines up well with the book of Job, as well as Hebrews 11; especially verses 13-16, but really the whole passage.

I don’t think any of the people in that passage knew about “Kingdom now” theology – I may be wrong about that – but it didn’t stop them from living life with robust faith. I think it is reasonable to expect a good, all-powerful God to do what is good and miraculous. This doesn’t take faith to believe, but logic. And furthermore, Jesus told us to pray about everything! However, I think it takes great faith to follow that God when the good thing that we think should be happening isn’t taking place at all.

I don’t think there is a good line of reason that comforts people experiencing pain. Obviously, pain is painful. But I would offer one line of encouragement: when a sister of mine faced losing a child, it was her faith in God and the comfort she found in the Holy Spirit that convinced me that I wanted the same relationship with God that she had. I’m not one to trivialize tragedy by trying to identify one good thing that comes from every bad thing, but I know that I will be eternally grateful to my sister for being a light in a very dark time.

[Ellen]

I wrestle with this one all the time. Probably faith's biggest mystery.

[Jeff]

All good comments. Much as I like "the already and the not yet", I'm not sure whether it's a helpful answer, or just a simple way to summarize the question.

[Dave Schmelzer]

Here's a comment from Denise LaChance, a hospital chaplain in California, that she posted on the Facebook feed for this post:

In my line of work (as a hospital chaplain), I tend to lean toward embracing reality. However, sometimes there are wonderful surprises.

(I learned that expression from you Dave; you said it came from something posted on the door of one of your Fuller professors, added to the Julia of Norwich quote "All will be well; all manner of things will be well.")

[Brent]

First, to be clear, the already-but-not-yet arrival of the Kingdom is not a metaphor, but a statement about reality. It IS an answer. It DOES explain why we have the experience we have.

Now whether we find that 'helpful' or not in coping with tragedy or just living our daily lives is a separate question that I suspect will vary quite a bit form person to person.

As for myself, I find it very helpful. It is only this framework, I think, that allows me to rejoice and give God glory for the miraculous while simultaneously condemning evil and asking God for deliverance from it - and without being contradictory. When I experience suffering, it drives me to hope God's Kingdom can break through and to prayer to help make it happen. When I experience blessing, it drives me to thankfulness and rejoicing.

[Otto]

Jimmo, I think this is true, yes, faith IS the victory. Cool, thanks for writing this.