Faith Lived versus Believed

Throughout Christian history there has been a tension between faith as a matter of a series of beliefs and faith as a life lived.

A student of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s tells the story of a time the professor took his students for a camping trip in 1933. While traveling through the woods, they came across a family in search of food. Bonhoeffer asked if the children were fed—the father replied, “Not so much.” Dietrich asked permission to take the children with him, fed them, and brought them back.

This is what the Christian faith looks like.

As important as our creeds and traditions are they pale in comparison to our actions.

Jesus spent very little time teaching people the right things to think but constantly urged right action.

Being a follower of Jesus Christ is about more than acknowledging Jesus’ historical existence—it is about following in the way of Christ.

One of the greatest joys in my ministry is the time I spend every week in our “Helping Hands” ministry where we give lunches, bus passes, clothing, and toiletries to homeless people. The greatest joy does not come in simply handing someone a lunch, but the real joy comes in the relationships formed, the prayers shared, and in building community beyond the church walls.

In feeding the hungry (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) we are the ones who are fed with the greatest banquet feast of all.

How many people are searching? How many are like the 1933 family searching for food in the woods? People are searching, not only for literal food, but for meaning, purpose, and identity.

The Christian faith has often been described as one beggar telling another where to find bread. As a people of faith, we have an amazing aromatic bakery, filled beyond capacity, to share with a hungry world.

It is in that sharing that our faith finds its deepest meaning.