An Autobiographical Faith
Over the years, I have been inspired by people willing to share their faith testimonies. In a sense, these people are sharing their own story, their autobiography, of their faith. The person giving the testimony is asked to talk about their faith journey, specifically how their life changed when they witnessed Jesus working in their lives. Sometimes a person focuses on one transformational event in their life and how their life was before Jesus, when they encountered him, and how they were different after this encounter. Sometimes a person recognizes there was a gradual change that occurred over their life that brought them closer to Jesus. And some of my favorite stories involve people reflecting, “When I look back, I see that God was working the whole time in my life. I just didn’t recognize it until later.”
A few years ago, a friend of mine challenged me to reflect on my life in chunks of time – from basically my first memories as a little girl through various pivotal stages of childhood, teenage years, and into young and, ahem, older adulthood. It was one of the most introspective things I’ve done. Up until that time, stuff in life happened, and I moved on. Great, bad, exciting, or sad, I did it and moved on to the next thing. Not a very reflective or embracing way to live, but that was me. So, when I was asked to intentionally think back on my life in segmented time periods, I really began to see how events had shaped me. (Junior high was rough.) Until I saw how I had been shaped and formed by my faith and recognized God’s hand in my life, I hadn’t really made my faith autobiographical. My faith wasn’t part of my story because I hadn’t made it a part of my story.
How does faith become autobiographical? How does faith become so real that it becomes part of who we are? Well, by definition, faith takes a strong belief and trust, and in the case of faith in God, it’s a belief and trust in the (mostly) untouchable. But faith can become so real when we have an encounter or an experience in life that shows us God is working in our lives. Just as my eyes were opened as I reflected on segments of my life, I have seen people flat-out say, “I don’t have a faith story” or “I don’t have a transformational moment in my life.” But once these people are nudged enough to share their story, they take the time to think and reflect, and they deliver some of the most moving stories of faith I’ve heard. Why? Because their faith has become autobiographical…part of their story. They put to words how God has worked in their life and that story is shared with others.
We will celebrate the feast of Jesus’ Baptism this weekend. I love this scene. I picture Jesus standing in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus as a dove, and the voice of God the Father booming down from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:22 God’s words were directed to Jesus, but we know that God calls out to each one of us as His beloved sons and daughters. One of the tangible moments of my personal faith story is believing that statement to be true. Hearing that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters used to seem like a feel-good statement. I needed to look back and see the moments in my life where God’s love guided me, protected me, and brought me out of darkness and into the light to truly know that I am a beloved daughter.
Making our faith autobiographical means putting to words the tangible ways God has worked, is working, and will continue to work in our lives. Maybe knowing that you are God’s beloved son or daughter is part of your own faith autobiography. It’s a solid foundation.
