When Faith Goes Numb…
I’ve been reading through the Bible chronologically this year. I’m currently in Jeremiah. It feels like I’ve been reading the prophets forever at this point. At first it was awesome! These voices calling out injustice and promising a future restoration of God’s people. But at this point it’s getting pretty old. Same thing over and over. Idolatry, corruption, war, oppression, and a bunch of people who just don’t listen. The whole world feels like it’s flushing down the toilet. And oh yeah, God’s going to restore things but the more you read the further away that feels.
As I reflected on that this morning, I realized that’s what I feel like about the world today. I barely get on social media anymore. I mean why would I subject myself to the predictable back and forth hating on each other? And I follow mostly pastors! I also don’t watch the news. It’s just more wars, genocide, murder, oppression… ENOUGH! So I turn it off. Just like the prophets, it’s this broken record of evil. And through it all I still believe Jesus will return. I still believe that the world will be made new, restored. But it feels like forever away. And so I kind of just accept and get a little numb. This is just what the world is like.
But maybe being numb is human. Maybe it’s not a lack of faith but an honest response to a world spinning out of control away from God. Jeremiah felt it. His ministry lasted over decades. He said things, why is my pain unceasing and why have you failed God (Jer 15:18). He cursed the day he was born (Jer 20:14-18). And yet in his numbness Jeremiah still holds to a future hope (Jer 31:31-34). He keeps space for hope when it might make sense to let it go.
Aaron has been talking about anxiety. I think it fits right here. There’s a lot of anxiety in a world that’s a broken record of wrong. It’s easy to go numb. But faith is holding space for hope. Even when it feels distant. Even when it feels as if you’ll never see it. Remember Jeremiah didn’t. He had a decades long ministry calling people to repentance. Over those years, he was mocked, his writings were burned, he was beaten, he was imprisoned, he was left for dead and he didn’t live to see the hope he preached about. His job wasn’t to deliver outcomes, but to stay faithful when no one listened.
Our job like Jeremiah isn’t to win but to keep telling the truth even when no one listens. Our job like Jeremiah is to hold space for hope. Even a distant hope that feels as if we won’t see it. And perhaps that helps the anxiety. Grounded in truth and holding on to hope we navigate the pandemic of anxiety. Anxiety prevents us from thinking much about the future. So perhaps in an anxious world the spiritual discipline needed is a space to reflect on God’s future promises. And when we do that perhaps the strength to remain stubborn in resistance returns to us.
My humanity has reached a limit of how much bad news and hate I can observe. I’m numb. But rather than spin out of control in anxiety, I’ll make space for hope. That’s easier when we do it together. So find another to hope with. Break bread and drink juice together. Lament about the wrong in the world, and smile knowing God is going to make all things new.
Written by Doug Foltz