I started writing this post during the pandemic, and life caught up to me. I had to engage in a lifestyle that was new to me, and on a level most of us have not seen in our own lifetime. Between divisive politics, covid issues, and dissolution of social activities, life was less than encouraging for a while. Like me, many have had friends and relatives who died from Covid. Today I am finally ready to refresh my spirit with the comfort that God alone can provide. I am ready to resume doing a weekly blog post. The book of James provides practical guidance on how we can live. There is comfort in knowing the things we need to live by faith.
Faith and deeds
When life seems to be full of meaningless activity, and God seems to be far from us, it is most certainly because something is missing. It is not enough to be a Christian. There is more to it than that. We need to focus on doing Christianity through our words and deeds.
In James 2:20-24, James talks about what is missing. Faith and actions have to work together.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
James is not suggesting that we need to ‘do works’ to show our faith. He is saying that faith and actions are two parts of the same coin. To BE a person of faith I also need to be DOING/ LIVING out my faith.
Being stuck at home under a mandate to distance and wear a mask results in a longing to get out , to mix and mingle: to be with people. Variety is needed and helpful to our psyche and psychological well being! When we realize that being stuck at home is not good, it is not much of a leap to realize we are better when we are engaged in life. In the same way our faith means something when we engage life with our faith.
believe and engage
Imagine you are tired, and would like to sit. You would choose to either sit on the ground or sit on something like a chair. The word chair should elicit an image in your mind. To use a chair, action is needed. If we substitute ‘chair’ for James’ ‘faith’ concept, we realize in a very practical way that the concept of ‘chair’ is useless if we do not act on it. A chair is useless if we do not act on it. Faith is useless if we do not act on it.
This is a wonderful, simple, and practical suggestion. If we want meaning to our faith we have to act on our faith. Year ago, as an agnostic, I might have said that doing something you believe in might be a naive, as it only serves to reinforce a belief. It only serves to convince yourself that something is true.
Muscle memory
If you ever wanted to become a martial arts master, learning the mechanics of the moves is never enough. The student must repeat the exercises until he/she develops muscle memory. The activity becomes automatic and in-grained. Faith can be like that too. We have to put faith into action to develop an automatic response which is a natural part of our heart -action. It is not a matter of proving anything to oneself. Faith and action must work together for us to understand and experience righteousness. I think I am due for some exercise.
