Lent 20

There is really only faith.

My lenten fast from feelings - my emotional diet - seems to have reduced me to this: there is only faith. 

David's whole life was a mess and on any given he was doing all manner of terrible things and then spending what remained of his day begging God to forget about that part and just show up anyway because God was David's only hope. The only thing David really seemed to having going for him was a deep faith that God would in fact, show up. Again. Because God is a God who doesn't quit showing up. The relentlessness of the terrible in David's life might have left many of us certain that God had left the building. But David just keeps haranguing the God of his faith, demanding that that God just show up.

There is no, Maybe I'm an idiot for believing all this hoo-hah anyway Psalm, as far as I know.  I guess because God does keep showing up.

In Romans (argh, Romans. Why are you?) Paul says that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. For a girl who keeps trying to choose righteousness over right, this is important: there is only faith that can be traded in for the righteousness.

This is a bit disjointed and probably ought to be explored a bit further. But as the things I Know For Sure continue to be eroded by life being lived by the many I love and know, Faith truly becomes the only things I've got. Faith being that I'm certain that I'm hoping, sure that there are thing I can not see.

Romans 4:1-12

New International Version (NIV)

Abraham Justified by Faith

4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”^[a]

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
⁸ Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”^[b]

⁹ Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.