"Simeon's Moment" by artist Ron DiCianni

Last weekend, I visited a church where the topic of Bible study was “Assumptions.” The group facilitator asked questions like, “What assumptions do we make about God/Christians/church?” I don’t remember a specific passage associated with this topic, although we did read Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

One of the first comments went something like this: “I think, a lot of the time, we assume we don’t know enough or aren’t good enough to be used by God in his service.”

Fair enough. My first retort to that is “we don’t” and “we aren’t.” It is our inability to do and be that gives us need for a Savior. We rely on God for these things.

But that’s just the free-grace-lover in me talking. I think I know what he meant. We are timid in sharing the Gospel because we’re afraid someone might stump us or that we won’t have the right answer.

But I thought this response, by another attendee, offered greater insight: “I think we often assume we do know enough, and therefore we don’t do the things we ought to do to get closer to God.” He went on to say how we can use the excuse of “not being good enough” to “never try to get better.” (It’s like people who avoid doing the simplest calculations because they aren’t “math” people. I wish I had an excuse like that for laundry. “I’m just not a seamstress!”)

I thought this was profound and convicting because I know how my own heart waxes and wanes when it comes to simple elements of the Christian faith, like Bible study, church attendance, encouraging fellow Believers and sharing Christ with others. But what do I do in remedy? I rationalize my apathy until I feel better.

The discussion went downhill from there. I think partly because I got involved. Someone made a comment about “just having faith” (a statement which always annoys me to no end), as if faith is simple and is mutually exclusive of knowledge and discipline.

In a sense, faith is simple–I get that. It’s not something we create; it’s something that is. We can bring nothing to it. It’s a gift of God. But there’s a trap in leaving the explanation at that.

I made the comment that the problem with “just having faith” is that we don’t know what that looks like. I and my Mormon friends both have faith–but in very different things. I, along with a Mormon, might even say I have faith “in God” or “in a promise” and still mean something different. I wanted to emphasize the importance of being able to define what it means to have a faith in Christ. Can we do that with Bibles shut? I don’t see how.

The Israelites anticipated a savior for centuries. When Jesus came, some recognized Him and rejoiced, like Simeon, who said, “…for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

How did Simeon recognize the Christ? I think it was because he was looking for him, and he knew (at least partially) what to look for. His faith wasn’t a generic, spacey kind of hope that things would all work out. It wasn’t a faith that didn’t require anything of him. He understood the writings of the prophets enough to know that the child before him was the prophesied King.

The (potential) problem with our faith is that it doesn’t recognize Jesus. I write this not to accuse but to encourage you. Do you have a definition for faith, or are you hoping it’s enough to simply claim the term?

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17

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