Summary: The Greek word pistis (πιστις) is usually translated “belief” or “faith.” This badly misses Jesus’ intent. A much better translation (and way to live!) is “trust.” Trust opens the doors to the Kingdom of God, here and now.

Shownotes

Deus Absconditus

(God has fled the scene!)

The first time it felt like God had totally abandoned me, I was in college. I was the summer youth leader at a big church in Richland, Washington. I had taken the youth on a waterskiing outing on the Snake River. When it was time to go, one of the kids was missing. After an hour and a half of searching, we began to fear the worst. We called the police who sent a diving team to search for the body. I will never forget the sight of the diver who raised his hand to indicate he had found my young friend’s body, or the sight of his corpse on the bank of the river.

My whole world got swallowed up by evil that day. I cried out to God but my voice was lost in the darkness. I heard nothing. God seemed absent. There was nothing in my understanding and no verse in the Bible that could explain it.

Some might say I have led a charmed existence but there is no such thing as a charmed existence. Life's path goes along smoothly for a while and then, when you least expect it, a vast pit opens up and swallows you. It happens to everyone.

It happened to me again on January 10, 2015. I was happily eating Mexican food with my wife and youngest child, when out of nowhere, she had a grand mal seizure. I had never seen this before. I was terrified. I held her in my arms, stroking her hair and wondering if I would lose her. I spent the night in stony silence on a cold plastic chair by her bed in the emergency room. I didn't pray that night. Not even once. I was furious with God. I figured that if God was so wonderful and could heal my daughter, surely he could have prevented her seizure in the first place. Obviously, God was not paying attention. Deus absconditus. God either didn't care or are was unable to prevent this. He carelessly fumbled my child. Why would I ask him for help? He had already proven his incompetence. 

I have felt the same thing in protracted form over the past few years. In the first part of 2014 I heard God, as clearly as I ever have, telling me to resign my church. There were no further instructions. No picture of a bright future. No financial plan. Just instructions to take a crazy leap. That was three years ago. I’m still falling. 

The One Thing Jesus Asks

So you have my proof that God is neither personal nor loving. I'm sure you have yours too. It may involve an ugly divorce, toxic parents, cancer, losing your job, chronic pain, being sued. Our cry reaches the highest heaven. My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me? In the face of all this, the one thing Jesus asks from us is to trust him. This is no small order.

In our optimistic American culture, it’s easy to think the tragedy that falls in our lap is a departure from the script, as if God promises a rosy existence for everyone except a cursed a few. But trusting God in the face of absurdity is the very center of the Scripture. It goes back to Abraham, the father of those who trust in God. Abraham packed up and left everything. If you think he went from victory on to victory you have not read the story. There were many dark nights of the soul.

Job is another example. Here is a man who did everything right and evidently was cursed by God. His “friends” try to get God off the hook by putting Job on it. Job must have done something wrong. Job does an exhaustive inventory of his life and finds no reason to explain the tragedy that has been heaped on his family. God’s “explanation” is no an explanation at all. God tells Job that he is out of his league. He simply cannot understand the ways of the Almighty and has no right to stand as the accuser. In the end,