This is something Lori wrote in an Epistle during the Easter season in a previous year. It has been resonating with us so we received Lori's permission to post it this week here.
Faith matters. That sentence is both as simple and as complex as I can get this month. It hit me like a ton of bricks as I was pondering the reality of Easter and why, year after year, we tell the story of Jesus, proclaim the new life found in resurrection on a daily basis, and attempt to make sense of the events of life that seem so senseless. We do this because faith matters.
Faith matters when we're at our very best and when we're at our painful worst. Faith is something not bound by dogma or scripture or a particular set of beliefs or rules. Faith is an experience, a journey, a reason for being. Faith challenges us to understand ourselves and others in the light of a loving God. It calls on us to speak up when others are silent in the face of injustice. Faith asks that we not try to make sense of life but to live it. When we find ourselves in the darkest experiences -the losses, the deaths, the brokenness, the pain - faith can offer comfort. When that darkness threatens to consume us, faith offers perspective. When we fear that we've lost our way, faith can give us direction.
And yet, it is also clear to me that faith can also irritate us. Faith can break us down, cause us to feel off kilter, and leave us wanting more...and I believe that that’s ok. In fact, it's good. Faith shouldn't be a flat book of rules or a simple set of lessons with which we try to order our lives. No. Faith should be something that grows with us, changes us in our deepest places, and inspires us to live in surprising ways. Faith matters. It matters when we hurt and it matters when we are able to celebrate.
May your faith change you this Easter season ... May it offer a new dimension to your life and a new bounce to your step. May this be the Easter season that reveals something very new and very good to you ... whatever that may be.
Finally, when that something is revealed, share it with the rest of us. Please. Why? Because faith matters, and the only way we'll come to experience that is if we are generous with the stories and experiences of faith that each of us come to know and love. Faith matters. Now let's offer faith a chance to transform us.
