Skip to main content

What does it mean to have child-like faith?


Child-like faith is imagination. And imagination is the door into the spiritual realm. In this sense, all faith is child-like. Faith is the willingness to see what is unseen. Child-like faith is the courage to ride your imagination as far as it will take you. It is the refusal to place any bounds on one's journey into the imagined. It is indulging whimsy. It is being utterly un-self-conscious. It is doing stupid things, making a fool of yourself, all while taking in the world with breathless wonder.

When I watch my boys play battle with their LEGO creations or my daughter dress up her dolls, I don't need to remind them that it is all pretend. Because it is real. The truth is their fantasy world. They delight in their toys because they perceive an unseen reality beyond the plastic pieces they manipulate.

When my kids have nightmares, it is not helpful to tell them their dreams aren't real. Because they are real. The fear is real. The monsters are real. We don't have to explain to kids that more exists to this world than what we see with our eyes. We don't teach children how to use their imagination. They are born knowing. We only teach them how not to use it. Or not to use it all. That's how they become grown-ups.

When we tell a child about Jesus and how He died for our sins, we don't need to assure them that the act is historically true. They feel the reality of the cross like the warmth of the sun. The challenge is for them to keep trusting when their faith is constricted by worry, fear, and all the evils and struggles of life.

Naïveté is only dangerous in a dangerous world. Belief in God amidst a fractured existence requires boundaries for protection. That's why most apologetics - logical, historical, and theological arguments for the existence and character of God - are helpful. But in the end, they're only boundaries that may or may not funnel you towards Him. In the end, we only approach God through our imagination. You cannot experience what is good and true unless you step off the cliff.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Dad's Review of Passport 2 Purity

[3,100 words, 11 minute read] The sex talk is one of the most dreaded conversations parents anticipate having with their children. To make things easier, an entire industry exists to help parents with sex education. Dozens of books have been written to help parents navigate this treacherous topic with their progeny. One of the best known among evangelicals is called the Passport 2 Purity Getaway package . It is produced by FamilyLife, a division of Cru (former Campus Crusade for Christ) and consists of a five lecture CD package including a journal and exercises designed as a weekend retreat for a pre-pubescent child and his/her parent(s). Passport 2 Purity was not my initiative. Our trip came about because Judy had heard from several home-schooling mom friends how they had taken their daughters on a road trip to go through the CDs. She even heard how a mom took a trip with husband and two sons to through the curriculum. So a couple months ago, Judy suggested we take our two older boy

Asian American Divorce Rate

I can't find recent data. Most of the stuff is at least five years old but by these estimates, the Asian American divorce rate is about 5%. I've got research from 2002 , 2008 for Asian Americans, and 2008 for Chinese Americans. The latest census data do not break out by race. In any case, a 5% divorce rate is about half the national average. Less divorce is a good thing. I would imagine that divorce does not bode well for personal fulfillment and many studies have shown it has a negative impact on children (too lazy to cite all the sources here). Of course, as one source argues, a lower divorce rate does not equate to a healthy marriage. There can be all kinds of abuse, dysfunction, and strife within marriage. All in all though, a lower divorce rate is one advantage of late marriage for Asian American men (and women). However, I believe a lower divorce rate is correlated with later marriage and there is no causation between the two. People who tend to be conservative,

Why Asians Run Slower

My brother got me David Epstein's book The Sports Gene . It is a fascinating quick read. If you're interested in sports and science, it will enthrall you.  I finished it in three days. Epstein's point is that far more of an athlete's performance is due to genetics than due to the so-called "10,000 hour" rule promulgated by books such as Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin (both which are very good). The 10,000 hour rule states that any person can reach expert level of performance in a sport if they devote 10,000 hours of deliberate and intentional practice.  That's a lot of hours. Most people aren't capable of anywhere close. And that's precisely Epstein's point. Someone who devotes 10,000 hours of sport-specific practice is likely genetically gifted for the sport in extraordinary ways AND genetically gifted in their ability to persevere and benefit from practice. Therefore, a person who can pra