questions today

“to understand is hard.
once one understand,
action is easy.”
sun yet-sen, chinese politician

do i understand my faith?
and is my faith active?

webster’s dictionary defines “understand” this way:
a: to grasp the meaning of
b: to grasp the reasonableness of
c: to have thorough or technical acquaintance with or expertness in the practice of
d: to be thoroughly familiar with the character and propensities of

to understand takes time. and diligence. and effort. and i don’t know that i put enough energy into truly understanding all that faith is. all that faith encompasses. all that faith has to offer. and yet, i don’t think it’s so much about the energy that i put in (or the work). rather, it’s the willingness to sit still enough to let god reveal the understanding that i seek – effortless on my part and in his perfect timing – when he knows that i’m ready.

i often think that man lives a backwards life. (i live a backwards life.) we tend to do the opposite of what was intended. we get confused and distracted and don’t always recognize what we are doing or why we are doing it. and we live in bondage more often than we live in freedom. for example, we tend to be moving way too much. in fact, we move and move and move until we are so exhausted that we need to rest. we need to sit still in order to recover. but what if we actually sat still before we began to move? what if in our stillness, we were actually preparing to move with purpose? what if we shifted things around a bit?

i do agree with sun yet-sen. action will follow understanding. and it will be easier because you will know why you are doing what you do. your actions will have purpose. but i think there is a step or two before one can fully understand. and if i were to rewrite his words, i think i would write them something like this...

“to sit still is hard.
once one sit, one can listen.
once one listen, one will understand.
and once one understand,
one will act.
the action will have purpose.
and the action will be easy.”
sun yet-sen and kris e. lindquist

so again i ask,
do i understand my faith?
and is my faith active?
but perhaps those are the wrong questions.

perhaps i should be asking,
am i willing to sit still?
and am i willing to listen?