Turning What Isn't So Into Something That Is So
Turning What Isn't So Into Something That Is So
I heard a story about a child who was asked, “What is faith?” The child replied, “Believing something that isn’t so.”
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:14-17
Faith without works is dead. If faith is believing what isn’t so quite yet, then the missing link is first a creative vision and second, the working out or towards that vision. What is not so needs to be brought to life. What is not so needs hands that sew things together and make an entire piece of clothing to cover a naked body, a whole quilt to warm the weary and cold.
The Proverb that says, where there is no vision the people perish, or the more straightforward translation from the Message:
“If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed.” Proverb 29:18
I never considered faith to be so closely linked to creativity. But how clear it is becoming. Like God looking over the darkness, the unformed void, the chaos, I too can look upon these things. I also can create beautiful things out of chaos. We are all creative beings made in the image of God.
God gives us glimpses of Himself as He works and invites us to join in. When we get an idea and see what may move a situation forward in some favorable way, why do we sometimes hesitate here? I know for me, it can be thoughts like, it will be so difficult, I don’t know how, and I will have to learn and admit I don’t know as much as everyone thinks; sometimes I feel exhausted and don’t want to bother, all this conferring with flesh and blood instead of just doing what needs to be done. Turning what isn’t so into something that is so is sometimes a lot of work.
What I know and need to remember is that I am not alone. I have wisdom and prudence whispering in my ear the principles and precepts of the ultimate Creator. Faith is a creative vision waiting on the works to bring it into being.
