Faith and Discomfort

February 11, 2009 by
Filed under: Job Search, Life, Religion 

As my readers know, I’m going through a tough time right now.  Being out of work for 6 months (tomorrow) is very difficult.

I have often heard people make statements about people going through difficult times (unemployment, death in the family, personal health problems) along the lines of “he/she has his/her faith to comfort him/her”.  Or people speak about how their faith has been a comfort to them, creating a feeling of peace.

I don’t get that.  I can’t think of a single experience when my life was difficult where my faith was a comfort to me.  I can think of several happy times where I’ve felt something akin to “God in the room” and once akin to “God in my heart”.  But those have never been difficult times.  When life gets tough for me, it seems like God is absent.

For me, faith has always been more of a discomfort.  I’m Presbyterian, and like all Reformed people I believe that we are not as good as we can be and must always strive to better ourselves.  For me, faith is part of what pushes me to be a better person.  Faith is a Discomfort.  Faith is a way to push me off of my comfortable pattern of behavior in order to better myself or help others more.  I’ll never be perfect.  Faith pushes me to be better.

My pastor did a sermon on this that clearly stuck with me as I remember it over 2 years later:  The Discomforter

That’s great while things are good.  When things are bad, faith is still pushing me to improve.  At that point I’m in a more fragile state – needing to be reminded that I am good.  And my faith is telling me otherwise – that I can be better.  The conclusion that is easy to draw is that my lack of perfection (or distance from perfection) is the reason for what happened to me.  This is particularly true in work-related trouble – it’s easier to take a pass on personal reponsibility with a bad situation in a family member or a health situation.

Depressive symptoms ensuing including booze would possibly indeed constitute quite difficult to be able to decrease, However, exactly as because of anything, a person’s more person works to be found at the problem, the better the most important probabilities of pfizer viagra 100mg success. Some men were able to get the erection but failed to sustain the erection for the sufficient amount of time http://djpaulkom.tv/get-up-wit-me-remix-video/ buy levitra australia takes to work varies from person to person. cialis can work as early as 30 minutes after consumption and last for four to six hours. Unlike other medicines, it is not required in offshore countries. buy cialis overnight djpaulkom.tv Other statin side effects have been seen, however, which, although rare, are still of some concern. djpaulkom.tv viagra 50 mg I’ll also note a previous post that mentions the situation (coincidence?) that the worst parts of my life have been preceded by heavy church involvement.  I’m not sure what the cause-effect relationship is there.

So for me, faith is more of a discomfort.

There is one exception.  When life gets me down, the people who help me the most (aside from Carolyn) are church people.  They do their best to understand what is happening with me, and to try to keep up with my life even though that might involve hearing unwanted bad news.  Church people will pray for you, and even if God is not hearing those prayers you know that someone out there cares for you – and usually not someone who wants something from you.  I’ll admit it – I’m not an easy person to deal with when experiencing heavy negative emotions, but they keep trying.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re saying to yourself, “Hey, Mark!  Those people ARE God’s presence for you.”  And you’re probably right.  And I do realize that and appreciate it (though that appreciation may not make it through the emotions that I’m feeling to the surface).

I just don’t get faith as comfort.

So God – thank you for your people who you have sent to help me.  There are too many of them to list here, but know that I see their efforts and appreciate them.  Amen.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

2 Comments on Faith and Discomfort

  1. Toby Brown on Wed, 11th Feb 2009 4:33 pm

    2. Your faith tells you that you that you can be better? How? Closer to Christ, yes. Daily dying to the world and growing alive to God, yes. But getting better?

    Calvin would say that sometimes a sign of our faith is that we face adversity. Don’t fall for some sort of prosperity gospel! God bless you in the struggle!

  2. Mark on Wed, 11th Feb 2009 4:35 pm

    3. Behaving according to Christian rules all of the time (or as close as possible) = better, right?

    Successfully fighting the pull of sin more often = better, right?

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!