Faith

            IImmediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

This was not what I planned to write about, but on my walk this morning, I started into an old song and dance routine about the miserable state of my faith. That naturally led to the idea of putting my faith on the table and examining it, to see what’s wrong with it.

Now, I suspect I’ve done laps with this in the past, but I must have needed it again because God suggested strongly that the problem with my miserable faith is that my faith is in my faith. I want to put it on the table and examine it. I want to figure out what’s wrong with it and fix it. But what’s wrong with it is that I’m focused on my faith instead of on the One in whom I am supposed to have faith. That means it’s not unusual for me to sing the same song as the father in Mark. According to Mark, Jesus doesn’t respond to the father’s cry for help with his unbelief. Jesus instead responds to the son’s need and to the fact that a crowd was gathering. Of course, the miracle would also have increased the father’s faith, but Jesus never acknowledged the father’s request for help with his unbelief.

Until today, I took it that Jesus’ actions were His answer to the father’s second request - the one to help him with his unbelief. Today, I find myself wondering whether Jesus’ response was more along the lines of “Your request is irrelevant.” We don’t need our faith strengthened. We simply need to turn it in the right direction.