Faith Doesn’t Make Sense, it Makes Hope

Christians are leaving their faith in record numbers. For some, religion in general has gotten too judgmental, politically divisive, unhealthy. Others have come to believe, in this day of scientific discovery, that God can’t possibly exist, only a fool has the head-space to believe.

I’ve been a Jesus follower for 30 years, or at least someone who’s trying, with a few successes. I can speak to the reasons why people are jumping ship as I’ve wrestled with many of them myself: church is a frustrating place, ripe for let-downs, and hurt – lots of hurt; the religious world’s escapades can be, many times, downright crazy; and trying to make sense of a magical, invisible force that loves us but allows the world to suffer as it does is a difficult endeavor at best. I’ve also experienced the other side, the good stuff, the life that comes from being part of a faith community and choosing to believe that there’s more to this place than the things we’ve dismissed as ordinary.

I’ve seen some crazy things go down at church – racism, cultural cluelessness, power plays, betrayals, rampant materialism, manipulation, cliques, tribes, etc., and I hate to admit that I’ve been party to some of these over the years. But I’ve come to understand that the problem with church isn’t church, it’s us, or better, what’s lying beneath the surface of us.

We bump into each other – be it marriage, friendship, working relationships, mutual interest communities, church, whatever – with something we like to call “baggage.” People have hurt us, and in our desire to “move on,” and/or “be faithful,” we fail to stop and deal with our emotional garbage, happily carrying it into the next relationship. We then find ourselves getting angry, frustrated, feeling betrayed, left out, marginalized, etc., but we haven’t yet aquainted ourselves with the internal hurt that’s driving it all, so we find someone else to blame, or better, someone else to hurt.

Add to that a dash of “religion,” i.e., the idea that there’s this God floating around in outer space who only loves the well-behaved, and you get a fire, a real good one, deep down in the unmovable places of a person’s soul. While there are many Christian jackasses in the world, there are none who don’t have some painful, unhealed things pulling their heartstrings, making their decisions, and taxing their peace.

The worst thing about church isn’t church, it’s the pain, fear, and anxiety that’s rummaging around in all of us – ALL of us. Put us together in one room to worship God, or talk about gardening, and it’ll be clear. We’re all struggling.

That’s why the Bible talks about our relationship with one another more than it talks about our relationship with God. It calls us, over and over again, into an impossible level of “oneness,” interdependency, and intimacy. It’s not a psychotherapeutical treatise by any stretch, instead expecting us to eat and serve forgiveness, compassion, mercy, justice, and an insane amount of generosity. To be a person of faith is to be a person that operates within tightly knit groups of people, to honor, value, and respect them, tolerating no division whatsoever, and cultivating a community that, to me, is the only hope for a world that’s been overthrown by so many ‘isms that seem hell bent on ripping this world apart.

I can’t say that I’m a hero in this arena. I’ve many times given ear to the siren call of cliques, tribes, division, racism, marginalization, entitlement, and all the other things that tax a healthy community. But, thanks to the many leaders walking miles ahead of me along the path of faith, I’ve come to learn that people are the currency of heaven, that good relationships are well worth their associated tribulations, and strong communities of faith are what our world needs most. Diving into these, and doing my best to make them stronger, has been no waste of time.

Maybe, when you hear “community of faith,” you hear, “a group of religious people pointing their fingers at non-religious people, trying to pressure them into becoming religious people.” There will always be plenty of that racket because, again, there will always be people fueled by something you would only have compassion for if you could see it for what it really is. But imagine a community, instead overthrown by generosity, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, justice, and all the other stuff Jesus told his followers to follow.

That’s what I believe church is supposed to be – a group of people who’ve lost their minds to the love of God. And to the degree that we surrender to His way of being together, much as we might fail, we bring hope into a modern, skeptical world that doesn’t put much faith in hope, especially when it comes to people.

We’re convinced; things are bad. Our screens are awash with the twinkling pixels of human failure – stupidity, selfishness, greed, envy, murder -rarely do we experience the humanity that should be. But the way we view us is the way we view our world. If people are “bad,” our world is “bad,” as is our general outlook on life. That’s why our hearts soar when we see strong communities being and doing good things simply because they’re good. It’s what the Bible calls “holy,” and everyone, believer or not, especially in the context of our current hopelessness, loves the tiniest nugget of holiness.