Understanding Not Required

"Faith does not require understanding to function."  

Bill Johnson

Several years ago, that statement would have literally made no sense to me. Even at the time of my last blog (October 18, 2014), just 5 short months ago, I was clinging to the 'hope' of faith, but I wasn't resting in it.  

Faith = trust.  You can't have one without the other.  They are one and the same.  Good old Webster says "faith is a firm belief or trust in someone or something". Cut that down "faith IS trust". They are synonyms for each other.  

So when I say that I was clinging to the 'hope' of faith, what I mean is that I fervently wanted to believe that I trusted God, and I HOPED that if it came down to it that my trust, my faith would stand up against any trials and circumstances...but I couldn't say with an absolute certainty that it would. 

I've always been a ducks in a row kind of person.  Responsibility. Accountability. Dependability. Sensibility.  All those abilities... that is where I claimed my identity.  And those are not bad things... they all look quite good to the world around me.  But that is where the buried trouble lies.  I was searching for and requiring approval from the world around me.  My safety was found in being responsible, accountable, dependable and sensible.  I understood those things and could never understand someone that I viewed as being the opposite of those.  I judged the world based on my understanding of and need for those in my life.

Our need for understanding is strong. We are raised in a culture that teaches us to understand the working of the world and those in it.  We take classes to learn how to understand people and how to BE better people, we take personality tests to better understand ourselves.  And where is all this understanding coming from... the WORLD.    

Just a few days after my last post, my world was rocked in such a way to make me realize that not only will I truly not ever clearly understand the world and the choices people make, but that ALL we truly have to lean on is faith and trust in Him in ways that simply do not make sense.  I watched as responsibility, accountability, dependability and sensibility crumbled around me.  What made sense to me for all of my 40 years was suddenly stripped away and left me with the realization that what I relied on for my reality was really just a facade that this world wants us to believe. 

And I also realized that I don't want to live in that facade anymore.  I don't want to pretend to understand anymore.  I want to simply trust.  I want to have a faith that goes beyond what the world tells me is responsible, accountable, dependable and sensible. 

What does that look like?  Like nothing I've ever seen before. It looks pretty irresponsible and insensible to all my ducks in a row.  To some, it even looks down right crazy.  But I guess that's how I know it's from God... that's how I know its faith.  Because FAITH DOES NOT REQUIRE UNDERSTANDING.  It simply requires Trust. 

Today I walk in trusting and KNOWING that my God loves me so much that He doesn't want me to settle.  He doesn't want me to seek safety in the world... He wants me to rest in His secure arms -- trusting that His plans for me are FAR greater than I could even imagine.  It's seeing my life from His perspective... not the narrow vision I have had from my own personal understanding.  

Right now it means stepping away from what would be the responsible thing to do.  It means I am accountable only to God... accountable to listen to Him. It means I am not striving to be dependable, I am simply living dependent on Him. No one else needs to understand.  That's really the coolest part of all this... understanding is not required.  Just faith.  Just trust.  

And don't mind my stray ducks.