With death staring us in the face most of the time, I wonder if people’s faith is large enough. Let me clarify.
I know a number of people who have enough faith to believe God could heal someone they know and care about. Sometimes they have to “pump up” that faith by meditating, reading Bible verses, praying and fasting. O.K. I think that’s cool.
Sometimes their faith stops right there. They seem deeply afraid of death. Death signifies defeat, disaster, lack of faith, or a poor self-image. The “size” of their faith is limited to life in this world.
Other people have looked death in the face and do not seem afraid of it. Their faith is something like this: “I am with God here and I will be with God hereafter, because God deeply respects and cares about me. And my family. And the world God created.”
Their faith goes beyond this life and into whatever comes after we stop living in this body in this life on planet Earth (or the moon or wherever we might find ourselves in the future). Death is not a defeat but a gateway, a transition time, an opporunity to get closer to God.
Granted, many religions use religious teaching to terrify people with the prospect of death. They sling guilt, thunder denunciations and threaten punishment (rather than consequences). And many of us have been brainwashed by such ranting, even when the ranting sounds sane and logical. But. . .
What is God like? Who has faith enough for the simple statement, “God is agape’ (love)? That is the true measure of one’s faith.
What do you think? Leave a comment and share with us.
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