PROOF POSITIVE

Juries want proof, usually beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt, that a person is guilty before they will come to such a verdict. Yet we do not have to serve on a jury to demand proof that something is true. When there is doubt on our mind, we want that doubt erased before we will believe that what we are asked to so believe is, in fact, true. Otherwise we will hold onto our doubts.

Sometimes, of course, we will never know for certain whether what is said is actually the truth or only partially true or simple a lie. We give the person asking us to believe in him or believe her a little and sometimes a lot of slack. Life would be too complicated and we would be stuck in a rut if we had to know for certain that everything and everyone we are asked to believe is true and truthful.

Who we believe and what we believe are always open to challenge until proof is proffered. That is a fact of life. We can give deep and profound explanations and reasons why something is so and that is often enough. Not always, however. T. S. Eliot, in commenting on how we prove our faith not only to others but, more importantly, to ourselves said this: “The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.”

We can all talk a good fight and we sometimes do and we sometimes even win. There are others times when our words fool no one. There are times when they do not even fool ourselves. We know we are bluffing even if our bluff sounds so logical, so believable, so true. There are other times, however, when we have so convinced ourselves that what we claim to be true is true that we deny the truth when confronted with the facts.

As Eliot noted, simply asserting that “I am a Christian” does not make one a Christian. Simply being convinced that following Jesus is the absolute right way to live does not mean that we will in fact actually follow Jesus in the way Jesus would want us to follow. We are known and convicted not by the words that come from our mouths but the deeds that come from our lives – when confronted with the fact that we are unable or unwilling to put into practice what we profess.

That is often a hard and very harsh lesson to learn especially when it comes to our faith. Again, sometimes it is only when what we profess to believe, even knowing deep in our hearts and heads that it is true, is challenged in a real-life situation that we learn whether or not we are indeed true believers or have simply deceived ourselves because we are good at professing such a belief.

Faith is an intellectual assent to be sure. What we profess to believe has to make sense, a whole lot of sense, even if some of what we believe cannot be proved, like the existence of God, for instance. But what we believe is put to the test, is proved, by the way we do or do not live out that profession. What is important here is not so much that we prove our faith to others as we prove it to ourselves. That is accomplished by the way we live.