It all Depends on Faith: Our Time to Lead the Way

By Carol Harston

During our year in North Carolina, we spend our weekends away from the city and amongst the mountains, farmland and small towns of the state. My husband Drew and I spend time wondering how our country can move forward when it seems like the mountain which we cannot seem to climb is the overwhelming difference of ideology, experience and residence. We are segregated politically, religiously, socio-economically, racially, socially and geographically (to name a few). How can we ever hope to be part of the solution when we all claim that the other side is the problem?

I drifted away from political news recently to read the New York Times’ article, “Why It’s So Hard to Admit You’re Wrong.” Kristin Wong wrote of the paralyzing affects of “cognitive dissonance” – “the stress we experience when we hold two contradictory thoughts, beliefs, opinions or attitudes.” She wrote of how cognitive dissonance is so threatening that we usually double down on justifying our way of thinking and behaving rather than adjusting our inner and outer selves to accommodate these dueling realities.

Could it be that cognitive dissonance is the reason we cannot seem to bridge the gap between us? If that is so, doesn’t that mean that Christians had better realize that now is the time for us to show the world how it is done?

We who follow Christ should be the ones well practiced at cognitive dissonance. We are the ones who trust in seemingly contradictory truths – human and divine, confession and assurance, death and resurrection. Blessed are those who mourn. Love your enemy. Our outward nature wastes away and our inner nature is renewed.

Paul writes that it all depends on faith (Romans 4:16). For those who experience the carnage of our divisive times, faith seems like a pretty shallow answer thrown around by religious groups trying to deny responsibility for their part in the problem and the solution. Just this past week, Kentucky’s governor suggested that his new government’s proposal to address pervasive gun-violence in Louisville is organized prayer encouraged and arranged by the governor’s office. He pointed to God as the one who can truly quench the yearning for peace. He failed to see God’s finger pointing right back at him. He failed to realize he had swung wide the door for Christians to prophetically witness to how this faith thing really works.

I agree with Paul. It all depends on faith – a faith that is familiar with the uncomfortable tension of cognitive dissonance. We must be comfortable with the reality that (a) we are part of the problem due to our perpetual self-centered acts of deception (our sin) AND (b) God is making us part of the solution as God is continuously rescuing, remaking, and righting our heart (God’s grace). To be a Christian is to know that (a) I am no better than anyone else AND (b) I bear fruit from God’s refashioning of my soul. Faith is knowing the first reality and trusting the second reality to be true. Faith is praying and acting. Faith is loving Jesus and getting to work.

Americans are yearning for a miracle that heals our great divide, restores the unity of our nation and cultivates lasting peace. When will Christians rise up to be the ones for which this country waits?

God is transforming us so that we might step forward in boldness. We live not with all the right answers but with God’s gift of wisdom and transformed hearts. Easy answers are the ones that we post on social media as we preach to the choir. Opinions parading around as answers are the ones we know right now. Real answers are the ones we cannot know until we join hands, minds and hearts with people different from us. We cannot know the kingdom until we defy the world’s expectations of us by finding harmony with those on the other side of the aisle, of the street, of the county line, and of the color line through the unifying power of Jesus Christ.

In faith, I live seeking forgiveness for my part in the problem and relying on God’s transformation that makes me part of the solution. I seek the God who promises unity, justice, and love and I trust the God who is able to defeat the oppressive division that reigns. I do not weaken my faith though hope grows dimmer by the day. I grow strong in my faith that works towards God’s unity that does not nullify or evaluate difference but instead transforms it to the glory of God.

When will we rise up and be the Christians on whom the world waits? When we will be comfortable with saying, “I don’t know the way forward, but God is able so I am willing”? When will we defy doomsday predictions and live as if we believe all this?

Carol Harston is living in Durham, N.C., for one year while her husband participates in a Duke Orthopedic Fellowship. After serving for nearly a decade as Minister to Youth at Highland, Carol will return to Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., this August to serve as Associate Pastor of Faith Formation and Congregational Engagement.  While away, Carol is busy raising three boys, working on a Doctor of Ministry Degree at Duke Divinity, and writing on her blog.

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