It is all too easy to look critically at Christian "faith" (and perhaps this holds for other beliefs too) as in the existence of God, etc. cannot be proven and therefore must be accepted by "faith". And then to go back a further step and interpret "faith" as a euphemism for imagination. So that in the hymn:
the "tableland" is to be attained only in the imagination of the believer and by a process not dissimilar to self hypnosis. But surely this must not be, or if it is I want nothing of it. It would be no better than what my father called "shamrock tea" - made with only three leaves and so weak.
I rather like James' "But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works..."
We're at great grandma's at the moment so get to watch a lot of TV. In "Songs of Praise" today a Salvation Army member sets up a School Uniform Bank to help parents struggling to pay for expensive school uniforms, and former Premier league player Bruce Dyer buys land for his vision to teach youngsters soccer skills. Neither of these "works" is what some would call "spiritual" and yet, by their own testimony, each are things they believed God was wanting them to do. And certainly both were touching people's lives. Fair play to them, as we say in Ireland.
And here's me continuing to doubt. But it occurred to me that, if there were no doubting, there would be no need for faith. So then "faith" becomes the bridge from doubting to reality and to doubt is an essential first step.
Apply this to the well-known preacher's picture of faith: of sitting on a chair. The question does not arise if the protagonist is oblivious to the possible weakness of the chair. It is only for those who take the moment to assess whether the chair will hold them up that "faith" becomes necessary as the mechanism to take them from doubt to stability.
So perhaps my doubt is not terminal?
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