Sunday, July 5, 2002
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Sunday, July 5, 2002 |
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Is 'Under God' a fantasy? By MARY JANE HOLT I was asked last week if I was going to jump on the "under God" bandwagon. The one who inquired told me she enjoyed my God fantasies more than most. It did not offend me. I have told you before that I have friends who think I write about fantasy when I write about God. I have no problem with their insights, or lack thereof. Their search is theirs. Their truth is what they must claim and hold. Mine won't sustain them. There was a time when I felt sorry for the unenlightened, for those who did not believe as I did, those who had no faith. Little did I know the day would come when I would come to know and better understand the ground on which the unbeliever stands. It is good place to be. Only there can one begin to grasp what faith is all about. It cannot be taught. It cannot be inherited. You can't get faith because your mama had it, or your granddaddy did, or even because your best friend has it. Faith is not contagious. Now excitement is contagious. And some folks with a lot of faith tend to get excited about their faith and all it means to them. And when you are around folks like that you can sometimes catch it. The excitement. Not the faith. Oh, you may think you caught their faith, but you didn't. Just wait until you are all alone and nothing exciting is happening in or around you. Wait until you are at your wit's end because of some situation. Wait until you have gone deep and spent all you have to spend. Wait until the darkness comes. That's when you will know it wasn't faith that you got. That is also when you will start to get faith, if you want it. On the one hand I would ask is anything on earth more elusive than true faith? On the other, I would suggest that nothing comes to us any easier. The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Why do you suppose that is the case? Certainly the Bible is a book of stories, many probing, intriguing, fascinating stories. Stories of people with needs and cravings not unlike those we know today. Stories of people who sought to have faith and chose to act on their faith. The Bible is a good book and a good place to start if you desire to have faith. I suggest that you read the book of Genesis. Yes, the entire book. Then go to Exodus chapter three. Follow that with Exodus chapter 20. Now skip over and read Ezekiel, chapters one, two and three. From there, just jump on into the New Testament. If you don't want to read all four gospels, at least read John's. Please don't tire of this trek through the scriptures until you have turned to Hebrews chapters 11, 12 and 13. If you are looking for faith, such readings will help. That is all they will do, however. The real work, the finding of your faith, takes place inside of you. That's where you will meet God. If you only see him on the pages of the Bible, then you can't see him. If you only hear him as "men of God" talk to you for him, then you won't hear him. Just who is God? Maybe nobody ever answered that better than He did himself. At the burning bush when he first heard the voice of God as it instructed him regarding his future leadership of the nation of Israel, Moses asked, "When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'what is his name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM has sent me to you." Is it fantasy? Is my faith real? Is yours? Are we one nation under God? Or is "under God" just a phrase somebody tossed into our pledge to our flag back in the height of the cold war when we were scared as a nation? Is that why we have risen up in such protest today at this point in time? Does it cause us to tremble at the thought of not being under God? Are we scared again? I don't hold with a lot of admiration or respect for attorneys in general, but the attorney who brought the suit to have "under God" removed from our pledge did this country a good service. He started us to thinking again. We need to think long and hard until we get to the point where we finally know lip service don't mean squat. I wonder what God thinks about America's use of the phrase "under God?" Maybe we should ask Him. Trouble is, the prospect of such a conversation instills far more fear and trembling in me than any terrorist threat ever will.
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