I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust.

" I hate all this silly religion,

but you, God, I trust." - Psalm 31:6 (The Message)

I have been using The Message for daily readings in the Psalms and Proverbs. I find it really refreshing, and I know that God will have one single passage of scripture mean different things to each person on different days. So, I was pondering a non-Believing (by her own categorization) friend's question:

"Why would God help Tim Tebow win a football game but let genocide occur? Just wondering."

She then added "I'm not a believer, but I just wonder how those who do believe can reconcile it."

Then I read: "I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust."

Since this is now the 3rd time I have quoted it, you should feel, quite correctly, that I want the words to sink in. You see, this has to do with non-JudaoChristian perceptions of God, primarily with understanding faith. Faith is what let's me, no, MAKES me accept God's modus operandi. It has to do with grace. It has to do with David the Shepherd. It has to do with free will.

C.S. Lewis pointed out that "Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having." Free will is one of the basic tenets of Christianity.

David did not go to that big church downtown. Even when he worshiped on mountaintops, he was not in a building. And, he wasn't with a group of fellow believers (although sometimes you or I may feel like we're just in a herd of sheep). But there is no denying that he had faith.

See (or choose not to), it's this way: we have nothing to do with our faith. Once the Holy Spirit is in us, it is the Spirit who forms our faith regardless of, no matter what, in spite of what we may do or think we are doing. Ritual, prayer, scripture - if they matter as far as how our faith is formed it is the Spirit working and not we ourselves.

David's faith developed strictly by his spending time with God, and in his "praying", far from the rote patterns of many churches today, he asked Him a few questions and then listened and observed. David knew that God would answer him, but that the answers were not always meant to be understood fully. But, the questions would be answered and God was always paying attention to David and his questions.

I have a son-in-law who is an ordained minister with a doctorate in post modern ecclesiology. He is maybe more liberal than I am conservative. At the core level, though, we share beliefs and wishes. He just this day wrote on Twitter:

I wish that the church spoke to the younger generations...That the church was more interested in those outside the walls than inside the walls... That the church was an instrument of grace rather than rules and doctrine... That the church followed Jesus rather than parade him around... That the church could learn to love our neighbors as ourselves... That the church would truly love and worship God... That the church was less interested in buildings than people.