Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Nevertheless, I Believe

Recently, one of my professors told us a brief story about the faith of one of her professors.  He was on the religion faculty where she went to school and straddled the difficult line between skeptical academic inquiry and religious faith.  Each week when his church recited the Nicene Creed, he would join in—with one small addition.  Just as he was about to begin reciting the creed he would say under his breath, “Nevertheless….”

That one word captures a whole host of thoughts and feelings—it is a faithful word, a doubting word, a word that expresses hope and despair.  Despite the difficulties that he was confronted with, despite the thoughts he might have to the contrary, he expressed his faith.  With that single word he was able to express his commitment to God and to his community of faith without denying his own struggles.  That word is honest.  That word is humble.  That word is human.

For him, that word is holy.

Nevertheless, I believe….

2 comments:

  1. I love this. It's perfect. Sometimes I sit back and think how absolutely crazy this whole Christian belief system appears. Sometimes I ask, "Are we just all out of our minds?" But, NEVERTHELESS, I believe. It works!

    Thanks,
    Troy

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  2. Hope and despair. These two words express in an explicit way the extremes of the chasm that I experience almost daily in my spirituality. I can relate readily with "nevertheless" and I can't tell you how often times I wish I didn't have to use it (or other words like it) with all that accompanies that word and with all the possibilites that can entail and thus promote its use. I envy people that seem to have faith come more easily to them, and then in a way I don't, as I am on my own spiritual journey and perhaps I might miss what God has in store for me if I were any different than I am in this present moment.

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