Yes and Amen

Yes and Amen. It takes more than courage to look at how far one has come, as opposed to how far one still must go—it requires faith. Compared to faith, courage is easy, though courage is never easy. Compared to courage, faith is alien. Courage is the road less taken, so to speak, whereas faith is deconstructing the existing road to build a new one. Courage often opts for Plan B while faith checks None of the Above and puts the pencil down. Courage is important. Faith is essential, for “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Faith both rallies around and finds refuge at the word and work of Christ. “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Cor. 1:20).

With courage, reading the headline news is a terrifying obstacle to overcome. With faith, reading the headline news is a prayer list. This week alone: in addition to a funeral this afternoon locally, there is a submarine lost in the ocean depths quickly losing oxygen, a war of attrition in Ukraine, and several layers of multiple scandals that embroil many world leaders. Yet, far scarier than those examples are the everyday evils that don’t make the headline news: the crimes committed against unprotected sectors of our society, new versions of the Final Solution dreamed up in some prison cell by a warped mind against his perceived enemies, and the lies, corruptions, and predatory behaviors that gleefully ruin families, communities, and generations. Even worse than the 42 children and teachers who, this week, were hacked and/or burned in their sleep at a school in western Uganda were the 8 girls abducted by the cowards who torched the rest.

Courage says, “Something must be done. Someone must pay.” Faith says, “Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done” even if the starting place for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” begins with me, my sin, my prejudice, my violence imagined, my passivity, and my disbelief. Over a hundred years ago, journalist, humorist, and occasional apologete, G. K. Chesterton, delivered a similar faith-over-courage response when asked in a letter, “What’s wrong with the world?” He replied simply: “Dear Sir, I am. Yours, G. K. Chesterton.” Almost predictably and certainly indicative of our Post-Truth Age, that quote is questioned because the original letter written to The London Times cannot be located (despite two World Wars fought), although Chesterton seems to have written an entire book after the incident (What’s Wrong with the World, 1910). Regardless of provenance, courage never says, “I am the problem,” but faith never forgets it.