Circumstantial Faith

I was listening the radio the other day, captivated by the testimony of a Christian musician who was sharing the story of a time in their life when they felt distanced from God due to a number of things, primarily due to an inability to “feel” God’s presence, probably driven by difficult situations they were going through in life. As you might suspect, they captured the time and their struggle with music. I don’t recall all the details, but they’re not terribly important to the topic at hand… circumstantial faith.

All of us go through difficult times in our lives… sickness, financial troubles, difficulties at work, deaths of those close to us, marriage problems, frustrations with our children… need I go on? Suffering is an unavoidable part of life.

In those times, God doesn’t always “feel” so close at hand. Our mountaintop faith experiences, ones where God’s presence is so real we can almost reach out and touch Him… well, they’re temporary. Back in the “real world”, those valleys in our faith journey where we commonly live, God often seems distant… even almost non-existent or completely unreachable sometimes.

John writes in his gospel of this in the account of Thomas:

John 20:24-31
²⁴Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

²⁶A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

²⁸Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

³⁰Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Circumstantial faith is like that of Thomas… having to see the marks and feel the holes… needing to experience God first-hand on a regular basis… dying slowly when those experiences simply aren’t present.

While it’s natural for our faith to wax and wane some related to our personal experience with God, what kind of faith do we have if it’s wholly based on our experiences? Is circumstantial faith real faith? What happens when we rely on feeling to determine our level of faith?

The answers to those questions aren’t all that pleasant, if you ask me.

So how can we grow our faith beyond the circumstantial, that we might remain strong when God does seem distant? We know that it’s almost a certainty that difficult times in our lives will come and that God won’t always feel right there beside us. How do we cope?

Perhaps belief is simply a matter of will sometimes… trusting what you know to be true, and remaining determined to stick with it to the end?

Any thoughts?