Faith Is A Crutch

Faith is a crutch. A cop-out. An excuse.

There. Do I have your attention now?

Lately, this issue of "having faith" has really been boiling up inside me. In fact, I wrote an entire blog post on scrap paper about this very thing while waiting to pick up Adam a couple weeks ago, but now I can't find it.

It seems to me that some Christians (regardless of your denomination) have begun to treat "having faith" like George Michael's 1980s hit. "Yes, I gotta have faith, I gotta have faith, faith, faith."

And it's true, we must have faith. In fact, the entire Christian religion is built on faith. Faith that God created the universe, faith that God is who He says He is, faith that Jesus indeed died for our sins, and faith that He is coming back for us. But somewhere along the line, we've taken faith and turned it into a crutch, a cop-out, an excuse to sit on our laurels while the world goes by.

It's no secret that Bismarck suffered from a historical flood last year. My neighborhood was one of many affected, and while we were luckier than most, we still experienced the horror. From the first day we realized that our house could be affected, my family and I stood on the faith that we would be okay. Our homes would be okay. All would be well in the end. We reminded each other of God's provision, protection and grace. We stood firm on the faith that this was going to be for our good.

But while practicing faith, we also practiced prudence and works.  We bought sand and begged for help. In the early hours when no help was around, my parents, husband and I filled sandbags. With the loving help and support from our friends, we emptied our homes and we built sandbag dikes. We did everything we could think of to protect our homes from the impending flood.

Did our actions marginalize our faith? No! Were we being faith-less because we were working on our own accord, with our own muscles, to save our home? No! Such suggestions are not only foolish but they're likely to get you hit over the head with a shovel.

Friends, Christian and not, would have implored me to "do something" to prevent as much damage as possible. And if I'd ignored their imploring, wouldn't they have thought me foolish? Absolutely!

So, why then do Christians often just resort to "having faith" while throwing in the towel? Why do some Christians pray for God to provide a job, a home, money, a spouse, a child, health, or some other blessing but do nothing else?

Mark Gungor says it this way:

One cannot honestly read the words of Jesus and help but come away with this one overwhelming message: unless you are willing to give up every thing, every sin and everybody in your life, you cannot be his disciple. Yet somehow, we have taken the glorious message of faith, repentance and total commitment to God and boiled it down to one simple message for the world around us: “just believe”.

It reminds me of the story of Peter Pan. If you have ever seen a stage show of Peter Pan, you know there is a special scene where Tinkerbell is losing all of her power and is about to die. That is when an appeal is made to the audience to just say “I believe!”. “If you want to save Tinkerbell, you have to say ‘I believe’!!” Soon the entire audience is shouting at the top of their lungs, “I believe! I believe!”. To the delight of all, little Tink is saved.

And the thing that really puts me over the top on this issue is that when Christians (myself included) say, "We just have to have faith" or "We need to let God work," we feel good about ourselves. We feel proud of ourselves for being so righteous that we're "letting go and letting God."

The problem is the world isn't listening to our words, they're not reading our thoughts, they're watching our actions! And displaying our faith requires work and obedience to God's instructions, all of His instructions.

Consider James 2:14-24

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
²⁰ You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^[d]? ²¹ Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”^[e] and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

Having faith and expecting God to do all the work is like going on a diet but not changing your eating habits because you have faith God will make you skinny.

Of course, if God wants to make you skinny (rich, married, employed, healthy, smart, or King of England) He can. He doesn't need you to do anything to make that miracle a reality. He can do it if He chooses, when He chooses and how He chooses. But the reality is we need to participate so we don't miss the miracle! We need to take an active role in His work in our lives so that our faith can grow. And as it grows then we get to share it with others. Other people get to witness it in our lives. Isn't that the point? To grow and share our faith so that others might know him?

And before you say it, I will: "all things are possible for God." Yes, yes they are. Isn't that what I just said? But if you read Matthew 19:16-30. Jesus says "all things are possible with God" but first He tells the rich young man all the things he needs to do!

For that matter, Matthew 19:26 says "all things are possible with God" and Mark 9:23 says "everything is possible for one who believes." It says possible! It doesn't say, "just believe and it will happen" like in Mark Gungor's re-telling of Tinkerbell's story. 

So what is it that you are waiting for God to do? Are you sure He hasn't already told you how to do it?