2. Measuring Your Faith Quotient

by Jim Auer

ow strong is your faith? What do you really believe? For centuries, people have been trying to categorize different types of faith. Now, thanks to modern technology, we have the "Unicorn, Unicycle, Cranberries, Water, and Loch Ness Monster test." In less than ten minutes, in the comfort of your own home, you can find out where you stand in this whole faith business.

OK, so maybe our test isn't the finest triumph of modern technology or theology. But it can be helpful in assessing your faith. Let's give it a shot.

Check It Out

Unicorns don't exist, but a lot of people like them. Beautiful, even inspiring stories have been written about unicorns. Unicorn posters decorate walls all over the country. Some people look at faith in the same way they see unicorns: It's imaginary but it does inspire nice thoughts.

The Loch Ness monster is a creature that may or may not exist. There's some evidence but it's not conclusive. Most people find the idea interesting, but they don't pour their lives into the search, even if they believe it's real. If the monster's there, fine. If not, that's OK too. In either case it has very little to do with them or the way they live their lives. For some people, faith is like that. "Maybe it's real, maybe it's not," or "There's probably a God but, like the Loch Ness monster, so what?"

Unicycles are definitely real. Nobody disagrees about that. You can even buy one if you want. Many people figure riding a unicycle might be a kick if they learned how. But it's not worth it to them. It takes too much time and makes you look sort of different in public. Some people see faith like that. It is a waste of time that costs too much money and limits one's freedom.

For others, faith is like cranberries. Cranberries are usually something you want a little of now and then, often for the sake of tradition, like at Thanksgiving. But they're not something most people want to have once a day or even once a week. Faith is like that for some folks. It's absolutely essential, at least in small doses, for weddings, funerals, Christmas, and Easter. The rest of the time it doesn't seem too necessary.

Then again, faith is like water to some people. Sometimes pure water is the most delicious, satisfying thing you can possibly swallow. You'd choose it over anything else. Other times, straight water seems a little dull. Either way, it's part of everything you drink.

You wouldn't dream of trying to live without it. We could probably extend our list of examples, but I think there's enough here to work with. Where's your faith? It's worth checking out.

The purpose isn't to locate yourself on a scale from wonderful to rotten. (If you're at a Loch Ness monster or unicycle stage, it doesn't mean God sees you as a decayed anchovy on the great pizza of life.) The purpose is to understand where you stand so you can decide whether or not you want to stay there.

Faith Is Faith

The first thing we ought to say about faith is that it's faith. That's not an amazing discovery; I'm not claiming a twentieth-century religious breakthrough. But it's not a dumb statement either. In fact, it needs to be restated every now and then because we keep trying to make faith into something else.

A virus hangs around in our religious bloodstream promoting the idea that if religion is genuine somebody should be able to explain it and prove it and make it as easy to see as picking out the good guys and bad guys on a television program. Faith will never be like that. If you could prove every speck of it, you'd have religious algebra or something --but not faith.

Having questions about faith or about correct Church teachings isn't bad or dumb. Asking "How do we know ...?" is pretty natural. It's just that when we're dealing with God there'll be times when we come up with a blank, sometimes known as a mystery. There are lots of things I want to find out when I make it to that Great Racquetball Court in the Sky because I sure don't understand them down here. But if all these mysteries could be proven and explained simply, we wouldn't be talking about faith.

Not everything about faith is a completely wild shot in the dark, though. For example, there is one rather believable and logical argument for the existence of God based on the "order of the universe." Basically it says that if you study scientific data about how this whole cosmic ball park fits together, the idea that it all just fell into place by itself and by accident is ridiculous. The conclusion has to be "Somebody bigger and smarter than me did this! There must be a God!"

While this is not an absolute proof, it makes a lot of sense to me and to many people, but not to everybody. Some people listen and genuinely say, "I don't agree."

The Search For Faith

For the most part, I don't think you can argue with people and convince them that there is a God or that they should practice their faith. Statements showing how our Christian faith is "the logical way to go" or even "the smart way to go" undoubtedly win some people over, or at least make them think about what you have said.

More commonly, I believe, people discover or rediscover faith because of big empty spots inside themselves, in their lives. After a while they realize something odd: All the money, pleasure, and creature comforts that were supposed to make life worth living and bring happiness aren't doing it.

Unlimited parties aren't doing it. Scrambling and scraping to get ahead in school or in business is challenging but often leaves you asking, "Why am I doing this?" Strange as it may seem to some, it's possible to have a spot on the starting lineup, a straight A average, a circle of admirers, a built-in pool in the backyard, a Rolls Royce in the driveway, and gourmet food on the table --and still ask, "Is this all there is to life?"

It's not only possible, it happens a lot!

Joy Through Faith

Look around you and ask, "Who's happy?" Who is really happy?

Is it the people who have surrounded themselves with mountains of this world's metal and plastic? Is it the people who say "Get all you can get because when you're gone, it's all over"?

Or is it the people of faith who look beyond metal and plastic?

How many people of genuine faith do you know who are positively miserable... who walk around griping, dissatisfied, full of bitterness and turmoil, always wishing things were different and better?

I'm willing to bet not many.

The human heart has a great instinct for what's real. We're genuinely happy only when we're dealing with real stuff. And the real stuff of life goes beyond what we see on the surface of this world.

A long time ago, Saint Augustine said the same thing in different words: "You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." You can mess around with dozens of high-tech ways to turn on, but only God can make you happy.

Faith Makes Sense

The crazy thing about faith is that at first it seems not to make sense -- but once you've found it, it's exactly the one thing that does make sense out of everything.

For example, people who don't believe in God see disappointments as rotten breaks that leave them feeling cheated and hassled and angry. With faith, disappointment and suffering can actually be viewed as God challenging you to try something more and better; God leading you away from something harmful; God trying to teach you something you wouldn't learn if everything went.

Without faith, much of life is just plain boring and a waste of time: Get this done; get that out of the way so that you have time to do the "fun" things in life. Interruptions in your schedule of Really Important Stuff That Makes Life Enjoyable can frustrate the heck out of you.

Your little brother can't find a toy, for example, and you "waste" a half hour trying to find it. Faith won't transform the search into a fascinating, thrill-filled adventure, but it does tell you that the time wasn't wasted. In fact, that half hour might be the most significant chunk of time you've spent all day.

Invisible Dimension

Many people are fascinated by the concept of a twilight zone -- the idea of another dimension surrounding us into which we cross over now and then.

Well, for a long time God has been telling us, "Yes, there is another dimension! It's often invisible but it's real. It's around and inside everything you see, including yourself. There's more than what you see on the outside."

Sometimes we sort of yawn about it. We buy those sensational national newspapers and read articles with headlines like "Top Scientist Reveals Evidence of the Universe's Invisible Dimension" and think, "Wow, that's fascinating." When we hear God's word about the invisible dimension, the Kingdom to come in this created universe, sometimes we say, "That's just that religion stuff."

How do you contact this other dimension? Secret spells? Psychic travel? Magic words?

That's it! Two magic words, "I believe!"

These words aren't always easy to say and really mean. Sometimes they might stick in your throat because you think, "Yeah, I can say I believe, but do I really?" You don't want to be phony. Maybe you even want to believe, wish you could believe... but you don't know how to go about it.

The Gospel of Mark tells about a man in exactly that situation. And he came up with a terrific, beautiful, honest prayer about it. You can find it in chapter 9, verse 14. Slightly reworded, his prayer goes like this: "Lord, I do believe ... sort of. I'd like to believe more strongly, but I need your help to do that."

He's asking for faith! Great idea. You're allowed to do that, you know. Sometimes people think they have to be already filled with one hundred percent pure, high-potency, anti-doubt, made-in-heaven faith before they can approach God.

Nobody ever said that, including God!