As I sat perfectly dull and unuseful on the lifeguard's dock this past Memorial Day (don't worry, I wasn't lifeguarding), the John Andrewses with Eliza in tow pulled up alongside the dock and waited for my husband to deboat them. While waiting the elder John asked me, "What would you say the opposite of faith is?" Because I think I'm just so darn witty and I know what non does to a word, I replied, "Nonfaith." I knew better, but I couldn't help myself. "Nope," John confirmed. The only other words I could think of were disbelief, apathy, and hate, so knowing I wasn't going to come up with the answer he was looking for, I said, "Well, there are a lot of dumb words I'm thinking of..." (perhaps it's not fair to call the words dumb), trailing off so that the answer could instead be given to me. (Admitting a lack of smartness seems a better option than proving it.) As hoped, John gave me the answer: certitude. How can you have faith if you know?
(He gave a few examples of people who knew and yet claimed to have faith--our Tinky-Winky loving friend was one.) So certitude it is. A professor had told John this once, and I'm glad he in turn told it to me. The whole point of faith is not knowing; belief is strong but certitude is final. John went on to talk about 1 Corinthians 13:13: "And now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." He explained that when humans reach of point of heaven faith and hope will have been fulfilled, but love will still remain, thus making it the greatest. Love can coexist even with certitude.
I'm glad my lazy sunblocked self was finishing a book while the Andrewses decided to go boating. So I'm sharing, and hoping that by sharing I don't forget to share these tidbits in the future.
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2 comments:
I never thought about the opposite of faith as being something as positive as certitude. Can one be certain in her faith? Can one be faithful to one's certitude? Lots of ruminating upon this.
I fancy the idea of Heaven as a place where love not only remains, but reigns.
You'd think the opposite of faith would be a "bad" word. I think belief in God can be certain or absolute, but certitude about why we're here, where we're going, what is right/wrong, etc. belongs only to God, and we can never in these bodies *really* know.
If we knew the answers, we wouldn't need faith.
And heaven? I think Jesus was trying to tell us that heaven is where you stand; it's here, we just have to stop being crapheads and love one another.
Too bad it's so freakin' hard.
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