Faith breaking through

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." — Hebrews 11:1

Faith is a mystery, at least to most people. This week we're talking about faith as part of our series on Romans, and I couldn't help but reflect what a hard concept it can be for people. I also couldn't help but reflect on how often the theme comes up, even in popular culture.

On Sunday night, in three distinctly different shows, there was an exploration of faith. It is something on people's minds, but something they reflect on in different ways.

On the finale of "True Detective," Rust Cohle and his partner Martin Hart were reflecting on whether they had any faith in good overcoming evil. For most of the eight-episode series, Rust had offered a dim view of humanity and the hope for the future. But despite encountering evil in solving their case, he seemed to have more faith in the power of good. In looking at the night sky, Martin said there was more night than stars, meaning the dark was winning. Rust responded that the way he figured, there used to be only night and now the stars are breaking through, so maybe the light was winning. That, of course, isn't a deep theological revelation, but it was a hopeful note for a series that's focused a good deal of time and energy on the dark side of man.

On "Cosmos," a series about science that's primarily divorced form Christianity, there was the story of Giordano Bruno, and his faith. The series got it wrong about Bruno in that he wasn't really a scientist or a Christian, but the version they depicted was fascinating. The show posited, again incorrectly from a historical standpoint, that Bruno saw the universe as infinite because our God is infinite. He challenged those who opposed him, in the recreation, saying their view of God was too small. While it might not be historically accurate, that idea that we, even and including people of faith, don't have a big enough view of God is worth some consideration. How big is our God? What is He capable of? When watching that segment of the show, I found myself considering that.

On "Resurrection," a new drama about those who died mysteriously returning, we got another challenge to faith and miracles. A priest, who spent his life talking about the miracles of God, struggled to reconcile the ideas he'd preached about with life when confronted by a real miracle. He remarked that he had never really considered real miracles. It was a struggle as he tried to take his faith off the page and into the world. I thought that was a real, honest, and beautiful response. As Christians it can be easy to rationalize and critically think about things of our faith, but when we face real life applications, it can throw us off.

What all these three things had in common is that they came from our secular culture, detached from Christianity. They were the musings of those who created them, only further showing that our world is crying out for something, even if they lack the faith to give it a name.