Levels

I have often been struck by the way faith seems to work on many different levels, whether so subtle that we are unaware of it, or so profound that we are lost in wonder at the majesty of our beliefs. Either way, there can be no doubt that our faith and beliefs matter to us.

Even among those who take their faith very seriously, people do not believe the same. Some people’s faith in God is based on a literal understand of scriptural propositions. Others’ beliefs may be much more ethereal, but those concepts will be every bit as important to those who hold those positions. Isn’t it interesting that faith matters so much to both of them?

There is one potential problem in using the term “levels” to describe this phenomenon. What we are discussing is nothing like peeling an onion, for instance, because that might imply that one type of faith was somehow deeper than the other and that is not my intent. Who am I to judge that? I know people in both camps, and their faith works for them. Oh, they may look at each other somewhat askance, but their suspicion of each other’s faith is not the point here. Each believes, and that faith matters. They may understand the nature of God differently; they may approach the Divine in dissimilar ways and have different ways of communing with the Sacred Presence, but for each of them, their faith makes their life richer and more meaningful.

Isn’t it interesting that faith in God works for people, even though they conceive of God quite differently from each other? It is simply another miracle of the divine-human encounter.