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Finding an authentic faith
and living it out in community
by Stewart Smith
I’m
an educator by trade… I started off teaching elementary school. And
currently I am working at the Community Idea Stations as an Education
Specialist, working in classrooms, helping teachers integrate video and
educational technology.
I
grew up in a Christian home and every week we attended church. We attended
Westhampton Baptist, here in Richmond. It was never really an option to be
there, it was just something that we always did.
Throughout high school I was always a part of the youth group – very active,
very involved. And then when I went to the University of Richmond I started
to, as most college students do, experience different parts of life and
start to question really who I was and what I was about, and really think in
terms of what my identity was.
One
of the things that consistently came up was – is the faith that my parents
have instilled in me - is it my faith or is it their faith? Is it something
that I really believe, or is it something that I’ve always just agreed with
but never really processed through? And so what I did is at a certain point
– because church wasn’t really a huge part of my life at that point, only
sporadically when I was at home with my folks, or what have you. I started
to go back to the Bible and just see what it was about and see if it was
something I really believed I could get a hold of.
The
more I read of the Bible, the more I got into it, I realized some things
about what we were finding there. One - Jesus liked real people. He didn’t
go and hang out with the people that seemed to have it all together. He went
and hung out with the people that were messed up – that didn’t really have
everything collectively together. And, in fact, some in society would say –
weren’t worthy of His time. But that’s who He gravitated towards.
But
the one
thing that I
can do is work
to build relationships - positive relationships. |
The second part
is the fact that relationships are a huge part of what we’re
supposed to be about. We were called not only to love God, but to
love others and that was very important to Jesus and what He told us
we were supposed to do.
The last thing
that I realized through looking at some of the letters that Paul
wrote is that struggles are always going to be a part of life. It’s
not going to be that you get to a certain point and everything is
just fixed. You know Paul talks about the thorn consistently being
in his side and so I think that’s okay. I’m always going to be
imperfect and that’s never going to change. But the one thing that I
can do is work to build relationships – positive relationships. And
to consistently look for ways that I can act my faith and not just
within the community of faith that I choose to participate with but
outside that community. And I think that in some ways is even more
important. |
To
me, church is much more than just four walls. It’s a group of people getting
together to explore their faith and to really think in terms of how they
might not only learn more but also to go out and enact what they’re doing.
And then getting back together to reflect and to support and to provide any
insight.
| I think God
basically, when He created us had a decision to make. And He could
either decide that we were to be somewhat robotic in response and in
action and without thought or feeling but just kind of respond to
command. And I think that ultimately if love is really what it was
all about in creation and wanting to create a place that was
beautiful and that exuded the qualities of God since we were
supposed to be made in His image, then it would make sense that God
wouldn’t create robots but rather create beings that had choice, and
in that choice there’s going to be imperfection, there’s going to be
uniqueness, there’s going to be difference. But the fact of the
matter is that there is also a lot of beauty. In doing so what I
realized is, is that God loves me for who I am, regardless of the
imperfection, regardless of how many times I mess up, regardless of
how many times I’m not sure or I doubt, or my faith waivers. But
that’s all part of the process and all part of being me. |
...what I realized is,
is that God loves me
for who I am, regardless of the imperfection,
regardless of how
many times I mess
up, regardless of
how many times I'm
not sure or I doubt,
or my faith waivers.
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