Today’s post is the second in the Faith Series. The topic for today is tangible and intangible faith. Tangible faith is more solid and generally is something that we can reach out and grab a hold of;or it is so solid in our mind that we rely on it without even thinking about it. Intangible faith is a little harder to come by. Intangible faith cannot be seen, felt, or sensed. Tangible and intangible faith each have a place in our lives. Each tells us something about ourselves. Keep reading to see what tangible and intangible faith has to say about you.
Faith In The Tangible
Whether we realize it or not, we make decisions every day using tangible faith. We turn on the light switch and have the faith that there will be light. We zoom down the expressway and have faith that our brakes will work when we need them to. We have faith that our plane will arrive safely, and that our luggage will be waiting for us. We have faith that our employer will give us our paycheck. That the sun will rise. That the moon will set. That the grass will grow. That the tide will rise and that we will wake up in the morning.
We don’t worry about these things coming through for us. Most of the time we don’t even think about them. They are just givens. It’s funny isn’t it? We can have more confidence in the reliability of the appliances, vehicles, and natural wonders that make up our lives than we do in the Almighty, All powerful, Living God. With the onset of GPS and other wonder apps, we can become so self-assured and self-confident that praying about something is a last resort instead of a first choice.
Like the recent news article about Ben Wilson who accidentally dropped his iPhone from the plane he was piloting and used his iPhone locator to find it. All too often our knee-jerk reaction is to turn to what we have the most faith in, what we see as the most reliable. Although there is nothing at all wrong with using an app to find your iPhone, it is a timely touchstone for all of us as to where our faith really lies.
As you read the following excerpt from NBC News about Wilson’s iPhone escapade, ask yourself what your first reaction is when the unexpected happens.
“Wilson, the owner of natural-gas equipment company Gas Corporation of America, didn’t intend to test the durability of his iPhone or protective case. He was flying his Beechcraft Bonanza single-engine plane from Houston to his home in Wichita Falls, Texas, this week when his door suddenly opened about three inches mid-flight.
That’ll wake you up,” Wilson, 74, said dryly in an interview with NBC News conducted via the fallen iPhone on Friday. “My Wall Street Journal got sucked out of the plane, and I just kept flying because we were close to home.”
Once he’d landed safely in Wichita Falls, Wilson realized his iPhone was missing too. It must have been wrapped in the Journal, he reasoned, and he assumed the device was simply gone. The Wichita Falls Times Record first reported Wilson’s story.
But Wilson’s stepson, John Kidwell — who is also the vice president of sales at Gas Corp. — pulled up the “Find My iPhone” app on his own phone and was amazed to see Wilson’s device pop up on a map. The iPhone was sitting somewhere in tiny Joplin, Texas.
How did you fare? Did you find yourself thinking, “Yep, that’s what I’d do”. Or perhaps, “Man, I need to get an iPhone.” Or did you instead, think, I would have prayed first.
I am not trying to spiritualize something as basic as losing your cell phone. I am however, trying to challenge you into being aware of where you place your highest trust. Do you find yourself believing in the more tangible things around you? Certainly, God gave us technology and a brain to use it. But I think we can, at times, have more faith in our resources and exhaust all efforts first with what we can do and reach out to God as a last resort.
Faith In The Intangible
It seems that it is in the intangibles that our feelings can have an adverse affect on our faith. The intangible areas of our lives are the the things that are not concrete, that are not able to be held and controlled. Like love and trust and belief and friendship. Perhaps,peace of mind and contentment and safety and provision and good health and stature and respect from others. In the world of intangibles we can waiver, wonder, and worry. In doing so, if we aren’t careful, we can undermine our faith and disappoint God.
Charles Spurgeon, that great 19th century Baptist preacher explains feelings and faith:
There are some who fancy that faith cometh by feeling. If they could feel emotions either of horror or of exquisite delight, they would then, they think, be the possessors of faith; but till they have felt what they have heard described in certain biographies of undoubtedly good men, they cannot believe, or even if they have a measure of faith, they cannot hope that it is true faith. Faith doth not come by feeling, but through faith arises much of holy feeling, and the more a man lives in the walk of faith, as a rule, the more will he feel and enjoy the light of God’s countenance. Faith hath something firmer to stand upon than those ever-changing frames and feelings which, like the weather of our own sunless land, is fickle and frail, and changeth speedily from brightness into gloom. You may get feeling from faith, and the best of it, but you will be long before you will find any faith that is worth the having, if you try to evoke it from frames and feelings.
Tangible or Intangible?
Which type of faith do you find that you have more of? Which type of faith would you like to strengthen more? Faith acts like a muscle, the more we use it, the stronger and more defined it gets. When I find myself struggling to related to the incredible but invisible God, I spend more time praying scripture out-loud. This is a practical way for me rely on the tangibility of the scripture, while reaching to the intangibility of the Spirit of God. Like Peter stepping from the security of the boat onto the water where Jesus stood (Matthew 14) , I stretch my faith and build my confidence by doing this.
What about you? What do you do to grow your faith? Do you struggle with the tangible more than the intangible, or vice versa? Join the conversation and let’s talk about it.