Subject: What is faith? A Holy Week reflection

From: "Faithful America" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:11:21 GMT

Dear David:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (NRSV)

A FaithfulAmerican wrote to me recently and asked why we
continue to ask folks to speak out for matters that, in her
words, "will never see the light of day?" It is a good question
? especially during this Christian Holy Week and Jewish
Passover.

All that God created began with a single idea - a thought - then
a word - then a conviction - and finally a reality. "Let there
be light." And there was.

Whenever we invoke the words of the prophets - "Let justice roll
down like waters and mercy like an ever flowing stream" for
instance - we participate in the powerful process that ushers
creation into being. By speaking the words we give them a space
in reality. Yet speaking the words alone is never enough. Faith
is the ingredient which keeps that space for creation so that it
can unfold, and according to the writer of the letter to the
Hebrews, it is "the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen."

Now, I am not a theologian, but here is what I believe about
that verse. Faith is not whistling in the graveyard (or on
Capitol Hill for that matter) nor is it ignoring the uphill
battle that good people face when changing the world for the
better. The assurance of things hoped for is often less about
when a hoped-for dream becomes a reality than why that dream
must become reality. The conviction of things not seen isn't
always about when or even how we will see it but rather why it
deserves our energies and skills. We hold fast to our faith that
the world may be someday safe for children because we have
assurance in the right-ness of it and the conviction necessary
to see it through. 

For me, vital faith means living not by our feelings but by our
commitments. When we can focus on the "whys" we can be assured
that the "hows" will arrive in due time.

Many of you agree, which is why 4,000 of you sent letters to
Attorney General Gonzales calling for the release of professor
Sami Al Arian (who, due in large measure to your show of
strength and support, ended his hunger strike -
see:http://www.faithfulamerica.org/article.php?id=171.) It is
why last week you sent more than 10,000 letters to Capitol Hill
demanding quality health care for all children.(See:
http://ga3.org/campaign/healthychildren)

Did those emails change the hearts of the Attorney General and
lawmakers on Capitol Hill? Who can say? But try and imagine a
Capitol Hill without them!

You give space for Holy things to happen in this world through
your time, your dollars, and your energies. Your faith compels
you to continue to take action time and again - even when you
cannot feel its movement. 

Is it any wonder why we are grateful to be part of your
expressions of care? You can have faith that FaithfulAmerica
will continue to offer ways to honor your commitments through
action. In just a few days we will unveil a plan that will
enable you to help save some one million children every year,
and there will be more ways for you to engage your faith on
behalf of others.

Whatever your faith, may this be a Holy week for you!

Blessings,

Vince Isner
FaithfulAmerica.org

PS: FaithfulAmerica depends upon gifts from you. Please consider
a gift to FaithfulAmerica
herehttps://secure.ga3.org/03/donate_FA . Thanks!

--------------------------------------------------

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://ga3.org/join-forward.html?domain=Faithfulamerica&r=dpSlvE71bAJS

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
FaithfulAmerica at:

http://ga3.org/FaithfulAmerica/join.html?r=dpSlvE71bAJSE

--------------------------------------------------

This message was sent to [email-masked]. To modify your email
communication preferences or update your personal profile, visit
your subscription management page at:

http://ga3.org/FaithfulAmerica/smp.tcl?nkey=w3uiuxdrzw86mxt&

To stop ALL email from FaithfulAmerica, reply via email with
"remove or unsubscribe" in the subject line, or use the
following link:

http://ga3.org/FaithfulAmerica/remove-domain-direct.tcl?ctx=center&nkey=w3uiuxdrzw86mxt&