Being fruitful.

I am currently reading A Public Faith, How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good by Croatian author Miroslav Volf and finding it stimulating.

At one point he describes why for many their faith does not produce fruit. He describes it as idle faith. It is well worth reflecting on and seeing if it applies to us.

Idleness……… is one major malfunction of faith. Instead of setting goals and propelling a person toward them, idle faith spins in one place, like a tire stuck in an icy hole. I suggested that there are at least three reasons for faith’s idling. The first concerns the character of believers; for some people, the faith they embrace demands too much, so they pick and choose, as in a cafeteria, filling up their tray with sweets but leaving aside the broccoli and fish. Second, believers find themselves constrained by large and small systems in which they live and work; to thrive, or even to survive, they feel that they must obey the logic of those systems, not the demands of faith they embrace. The third reason for faith’s idleness concerns the faith itself; the faith either is not applied to new circumstances or does not seem relevant to contemporary issues—from nuclear power to neuroscientific discoveries. With these three reasons for faith’s idleness combined, no wonder people misconceive faith and treat it as a performance-enhancing drug or a soothing balm rather than as a resource to orient their life in the world.

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