Lorie,
I can't quote verses for you and I don't see myself as a good example of a man of faith. But I do know that faith isn't something that a good person has and a bad person lacks; if you feel challenged in your faith that just shows you're human. Faith isn't something we can "get" like turning on the lights. I wish it were!
A text I read with my medieval theology students has a fantastic message on this issue - or at least it helped me a lot. The author, a Muslim writing about the year 1110, points out that when we are young and naive our faith is like a vase on the shelf. It may wobble and tip from time to time and we save it intact; but sometimes it gets knocked on the floor and smashed into a million bits.
When that happens there's no point in just patching the bits together and trying to say, "Here is my vase, as before". It just isn't true. It's a jumble of broken bits glued together again, and just looking at it we can see it will never hold water again. It isn't really a vase anymore - it's just a reminder of what that vase used to look like.
To restore the vase we have to put the broken pieces of glass back into the fire, melt them, and blow ourselves a vase that will contain the same glass but be something new at the same time. New and stronger than before, depending on the skills, care and dedication we put into blowing the new vase.
Just a thought.
Much love,
Larry
_________________________
Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my freedom highway.
Nobody living can make me turn back:
This land was made for you and me. (Woody Guthrie)
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