Have you ever heard someone say that so and so was a faithful member of the church? What did they mean? In my experience they meant that this person was at the building every time a service was scheduled.

Other times I have had people called faithful because they held the same point of view as the person making the statement. Ones pet idea was the measuring stick of faith, but is that what faith is, the facts in my head?

How many times are we subconsciously controlled by these ideas of faith?

The idea of faith present in the Bible is one of trust. Hebrews 11 is probably the best place to go to understand this idea. Throughout this chapter we get a clear picture of faith as trust. To really see this idea simply replace faith with trust in God and see what you get. Because Abel trusted God he offered Him a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain…And because of his trust in God, though he died, he still speaks.

That is faith as story, our story. When faith is boiled down to attendance or pet doctrines it allows the person to live for whatever they want as long as they go at the right times and believe the right facts.

Am I the only one who sees that as bland and tasteless? It allows me to ignore whatever teaching I want as long as it’s not one of my pet doctrines, as long as it doesn’t impact my attendance.

No wonder so many lives don’t reflect Christ, they don’t understand that is the point, they attend church, what else matters?

What a sad caricature of faith. Faith as story means life with God invades and absorbs every aspect of our life. Each moment could be a moment to show God’s glory. Every instant whether I am at a grocery store or a worship service becomes a moment that requires faith. Requires that I trust God has a plan and is moving in His creation. The possibilities are endless because faith is a story and each day adds another page.

Try to imagine Abraham’s story, you know the Father of our faith, if faith is facts or attendance. What service do we read of him scheduling? How do we explain Hagar if it was all about knowing the facts? No, faith is trust and it always has been trust. At some point the word was hijacked but we shouldn’t be afraid today to return it to its proper place as story.