Faith is not about what you believe

Don't think about God - live a life transformed by joy

What do you believe about God?

The answer to this question is theology:

Does God exist? And if so, how does God act? Does God get involved with our day-to-day life or look down on us from far away? Where is God when we suffer?

All these questions are in our head. They are what we believe.

The Christian faith - or any religion - is a collective set of beliefs. The boundaries around how we understand God’s relationship with us, and the world.

And each of us personally has our own theology - where we fall on the spectrum of the broader set of beliefs held by our tradition.

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Trexo is not about what we believe.

One thing I’ve learned about the earliest Christians is that they were not sitting around debating whether Jesus was the Son of God or not, and how that worked.

They were living radically changed lives after encountering the risen Christ.

The first followers of Jesus were not thinking about God - they were acting out their faith. And changing the world in the process.

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Belief = assent to what is true.

I like to say that belief in God is like belief in gravity. No one sees gravity - few of us really understand how it works. But we take it for granted that it is there, literally grounding our lives.

I often joke that no one can stop me from believing there are little invisible elves with strings, holding onto my ankles. I don’t have to believe in gravity - but that doesn’t mean it’s not there!

Our belief in God is like our belief in gravity - it’s the extremely important grounding of reality. Yet we are also free to hold all sorts of beliefs about how that reality works. And we can spend our whole lives exploring and defining our beliefs - or never engaging them at all!

Faith = the building of relationship.

In human relationships, we build closeness and trust by repeated words and actions that build a shared life. This can be our whole lives - like a parent, spouse, or closest friend. It can be some part of our lives - work, or church, or neighbor.

Something as simple as saying ‘good morning’ to the person who makes our coffee every day can bond us together with someone. Can create a relationship where we really care about another.

Faith is the every day activities of our relationship with God.

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That’s what we need a ‘gym for your soul’ for:
Learning small, repeated actions that build our relationship with God.

And like the earliest Christians, these actions re-orient our lives around:

• The presence of healing and miracles.

• Loving, serving, and forgiving our neighbors.

• Worshiping the beauty, power, and presence of God.

• Being surrounded by the renewal and strength of unconditional love.

• The constant presence of peace and JOY.

Our beliefs are the bedrock of our lives of faith. Faith is our belief in action.
Don’t think about it. LIVE it.

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So here’s the outline of your soul’s ‘training program’. Six basic areas that we are going to cover over the next several weeks, and the basis for your weekly ‘workout’…