Thought of the Day 04.23.10

Although I know it’s a strange thing to say, “I believe in the existence of my wife.” She is real. But of course it takes far more than mere belief in her existence to say, “I believe in my wife.” The first claim is a statement about her reality, whereas the second one is a statement about my reality, specifically that my reality is heavily tied to her.

Now, obviously I must “believe in her existence” to “believe in her,” but what it means to “believe in her” is that I depend deeply upon my wife to provide for a wide variety of my needs. A marriage without this wouldn’t be much of a marriage at all.

This distinction is why I worry we focus too much effort persuading people to develop a belief in the existence of God. Although it’s necessary, by treating it as a major objective, we mistakenly lead people to think they’ve arrived when they’ve really only just begun to travel.

I think that’s one reason why so many Christians find themselves just barely living Christianity. Because the word “faith” has been used so sloppily for so long, many people think they have Christian faith when all they really have is “faith in Christ’s existence.” In contrast, the Biblical idea is for us to look to Him to meet all our needs in their entirety. Only then can we properly be said to have “faith in Christ.”