La Fey (Faith)

The last few days have been full of interesting happenings. A quick summary would include the hours spent working on a DVD of photos and the concurrent frustration of different types of media files that don’t work together. Were I summarizing the last week, I would certainly mention the great times I have spent with my coworkers planning their future trip to Kentucky. Not to be left out would be the experience of being accosted by a man in a business suit selling antioxidant-filled energy gels. I would definitely mention the great conversations I have had over the last 48 hours, talking to various people about various important things. The most interesting was the clothing store owner who asked me for advice about his relationship with his girlfriend. He is a new Christian, she is a pastor in some fairly strict denomination, it sounds like. He hopes to marry her, but has not told her about his ex-wife from before he was a Christian, because he knows she believes that a person should only marry once in life. Uh-Oh!
Yes, all this would be included in a quick overview, along with a quick mention of the group meetings we have had over the last few days. However, I am glad to be free from any restraints like “quick overview” or “summary” and other cumbersome and interfering titles. I am glad because I want to speak a bit more about the meetings we have had this week. They were cool.

We started back with regular weekly meetings with the schools and groups this week, finishing up a module on character. The principle we discussed this week was Faith. We used the ‘Trust Fall’ activity to illustrate. In case some of you are not familiar with this activity, I will explain. One person stands on something elevated to about 4 feet. The group stands in two lines facing one another in a line out from the one person. They extend their arms in front of them in order to catch and the person on the platform falls (without bending their body) into the waiting arms of the group. Like the name says, you have to trust. Well, it was interesting to see the difference between the two groups we have used this with so far. One was a group of teachers in a school. The other group was young people, 12-20ish. Out of 25 teachers, only 5 would do the activity, and the others hardly even wanted to help catch their peers. It was pretty sad…

The other group was better, all tried to fall, and all did but 2 of them. We even added a couple elements with this group to make the activity connect more to faith. As the person was getting onto the stack of plastic chairs we used for our platform, everyone else went away, out of sight. The ‘fall-er’ would look around and see no one ready to catch them. Then one of the facilitators would blindfold them. At a signal, the group would enter silently and position themselves. As they got ready the facilitator would count down to 1 and the person would fall. They had to trust in what they could not see that they would be caught. I think that this was a great way to introduce faith, and how it relates to trust and relationships. After each activity we talked through what people felt and learned, especially relating to faith. Both the groups took good truths away, I think, to apply to their lives.

For myself, the comparison between the groups brought something into focus in my mind. Each of the teachers who didn’t go had an excuse. They had seen or heard of someone getting hurt in similar activities, they had back problems, they were afraid of heights, or of hitting their head, you know. Ultimately though, they were not willing to entrust themselves to the care of their fellow teachers. They didn’t have faith. I don’t know, I am reminded of our need to have the faith of a child. Yes, perhaps the adults simply had a more real idea of the dangers; they were too mature, too wise to participate. They had been through more in life, they knew better. Or did they? Were they perhaps missing something?

I think too often we ‘mature’ to the point where our faith is sterile and near useless. As we grow up we lose our ability to trust. Yes, we can call it wisdom, but I am not so sure. We can call it experience, but is that the right kind of experience? I pray to have faith like a child. I want a faith untainted by the ‘maturity’ and the hesitation of the world. I want to believe and obey like I don’t know any better :)

“Faith is the certainty of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”

In Truth,

Stephen