Recently, I attended the Wednesday church service at a local community church. As I expected, near the end of the service, the pastor did what has been universally coined "The Altar Call." It reminded me of my younger days...back in middle and high school attending Christian Youth rallies and such. At the time, I invited many of my non-Christian friends to attend with me. It was always an amazing experience. The pastor would passionately tell his testimony, about the amazing love and grace he had felt since becoming a Christian, and then he would invite those in the crowd to come forward and accept Jesus into their heart. And this is where I come to the title phrase "stupid faith." Many of my friends, coming from broken homes, drug addiction, or just an absence of popularity at school, were simply looking for a place to be loved and accepted, and they thought they had found it there at the rally. So they stepped up to the alter...to "accept Jesus." The problem didn't come with accepting Jesus right then, that's actually a great and brave thing they did, the real problem came a few months later when they still didn't understand their faith, still felt lost, and still felt unloved. They would stand there in the pews every Sunday feeling fake as they sang the same monotonous chorus lines over and over again. And because of this...they left. They left a place that world-round is called "God's House." How could this happen?! It comes down to "stupid faith."
You know when your at the river with your friends, your standing on the edge of a 10-foot cliff over the water, and your friends are saying, "Jump!" "It'll be cool!" "You won't get water in your nose!"? And what do you do? Well, the peer pressure and comforting words of your friends are just too promising, and so you jump. This is what is known as stupid faith. Because they didn't teach you how to jump, or how to hit the water correctly, or how to plug your nose...because they didn't tell you to hold your breath....you end up bellyflopping, inhaling vast amounts of water, deciding that you will never return to that cliff edge again, and finding new friends.
Our faith must be based on something. So many people take the: "faith is believing in what you cannot see" passage in Hebrews 11:1, way out of context. We don't just trust God randomly, we trust him because we have every single one of the 66 books of the Bible to prove to us that God is the creator, that he is at work to this very day, and that he always comes out on top to fulfill His promises. We cannot see God of course, but we can see His invisible qualities in nature (Romans 1:20) and we can also see who He is and what His plans are through His Word.
Many millions of people across the world claim to be followers of Christ, but how many say that with mere stupid faith? Just because they grew up in a Christian family, attended church every Sunday, or have "experience God's love" doesn't actually show any real faith. Do you know how many Budhists "experience peace and love?" Well, just as many as do Christians. REAL FAITH, through knowlege and understanding of God's very Word, the only truth, and acting upon that understanding, is what sets Christians apart from Budhists, Muslims, and any other religion. Do you have REAL FAITH? Or are you walking along this earth claiming to be a Christian, but not really having any grasp on what you believe? If you are humble enough to place yourself in the latter catagory, take a look at the story of the Ethiopian in Acts chapter 8, from verse 26 to the end of the chapter. What does he say to Phillip about "understanding?"
Reading the Bible 100 times isn't going to give you the proper understanding to have REAL FAITH. The Word has to be unfolded before you in order to give you light (Psalm 119:130). And, if you're truly praying and seeking, the light will be provided. Many people are content living with their stupid faith, but just ponder on this thought that Jesus left us in Luke 18:8, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" I hope you or I don't have to find out the hard way.~
