Faith Is A Journey

I am reading Out of the Question . . . into the Mystery by Leonard Sweet. The subtitle is Getting Lost in the Godlife Relationship.

I'm finding that my training has led me into a lifestyle that hasn't made much room for the mystery of Christ. I was taught that there is an answer for everything - I just have to find it. Of course the Bible was the place I was taught to always look.

While I do believe the Bible is God's handbook for living, it is not God Himself. Does that sound like an odd statement? I am finding that I actually have a better relationship with my Bible than I do God. It seems like the Holy Spirit has been prompting me for years to get to know God in a more personal way.

I have a friendship that has taught me much about relationship. My friend was the first person I called when I was in a crisis situation. The friend isn't even in this country, but my crisis was huge. My friend was comforting, yet helpful in direction. Our relationship has blazed a trail of commitment.

Sweet says "The true test of faith is not knowledge based. The true test of faith is a revelational, and relationship, test. Is Christ dead or alive in my life? Has the Jesus virus infected my life until my spirit is becoming His spirit? A relationship with God-loving God-is the fulfilling of the Law, according to Jesus. The moral law was written on tablets of stone. But Jesus rolled away the stone. The Jesus trimtab is now grafted into the human heart until 'as He is, so are we in this world," until 'Christ is formed in you.' " Out of the Question . . .Into the Mystery - page 30

Sweet goes on to describe churches that are lifeless. They are the ones with the form but no substance. They are fruitless. There is very little relational happenings, vertically or horizontally. Christ is a principle that says "Christ is the answer!" That statement almost seems blasphemous! Of course He is, I'm thinking. As I am thinking, reading and remembering I find I am most drawn to relationship. Looking at my friend, I see that I have a deep commitment. We surely do not always agree, but we ask questions of each other and spur one another to more than mere rote answers.

The journey . . .the journey . . . the journey . . . it's about the journey. Faith is a living ongoing thing. It's dynamic and living. Belief, on the other hand, is something that I look back upon. It doesn't mean that belief is bad, it just means that it isn't dynamic for the days ahead. It's more like a stone, something you build upon. My challenge has always been that I don't really revisit those beliefs all that much. I just camp on them, not questioning as I move on in the dynamics of my faith journey. (Insert heresy hunters and lightning bolts) Sweet is confronting me. To which do I cling - my stony beliefs or the relationship with God that might be moving my journey from faith to faith and possibly changing (reshaping) some of my beliefs?

What do I do when my belief stones aren't willing to move as my faith grows along the journey?