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Location: Kelowna, Canada

Sunday, April 1

Faith, Hope, and Wishes

Sorry for the scattered intensity of this one, I'm just getting a handle on it myself.

I have often noticed the confusion that the modern Christian culture seems to have concerning the difference between Hoping and Wishing. Lately I have been realizing that the problem extends even further into a confusion between Wishing and Faith (believing).

Hoping and Wishing, I think, are closely related. They both have an aspect of looking to the future with a degree of expectation of something good. The fulfillment of the desire is usually left up to some sort of outside agency as opposed to "planning" which involves subsequent action on behalf of the planner. The differences between wishing and hoping are somewhat subtle but important.
  • Wishing leaves the fulfillment of desire up to some indistinct, amorphous force. The wishing well or the turkey bone, is somehow tied to some sort of energy not clearly understood. The Genie in the bottle may grant the wish but it is unclear as to whether the fulfillment is actually what the wisher wants. Be careful what you wish for... Wishing is the existential cry in to the void ,"Fulfill me". Wishing is rooted in the desire of the wisher with no understanding or even necessarily belief in the force being appealed to. One could even go so far as to say that the fulfillment of a wish is directly related to the depth of feeling of desire. (ie the more you want it, the more likely you are to get it)
  • Hope, conversely, puts desire's fulfillment in some specific agency, whether person or object. (In this way hope and faith are intimately connected. Hope is in a way Faith for the future) When someone expresses their hope, it is rooted in the characteristics of the agency of fulfillment:
  1. Is the person willing?
  2. Is the person capable of fulfilling the desire?
  3. Will the agency remain (or in some cases become) willing and capable until the time of fulfillment?
Whereas wishing is rooted in desire, hoping is rooted in the capacity of the mover to accomplish the fulfillment of the thing hoped for.

  • Now to faith. Faith, really, has little to do with desire. Faith as true faith is obviously different from false faith. True faith is belief in something that is. False faith is based on something that is not. I will focus on true faith because most people understand believing a lie and the effects of that.
The believer has to have true knowledge of the person or thing being believed in and is rooted in a conviction (mental, emotional, spiritual) that a true characteristic is true despite appearance to the contrary. Faith can even be in something undesirable; (I will lose my job, I will die) Faith is rooted in "the way things are" rather than any desire towards "the way things should be"(wishing) or "the way things will be"(true hope)

These distinctions are perhaps easier to discern through an example. I am not an expert on biblical healing, but I do believe that in at least some cases, the effectiveness of the prayer for healing is directly related to the faith level of participants. It looks like wishing, right? This is where faith gets metaphysical in terms of the fulfillment of the Lord's prayer; Let Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Something may be true in the spirit but prevented from manifesting physically based on faith. Truly true but not yet true in experience. Here is, obviously where the confusion sets in.

This is where some people mistake hope for faith and even more distressing; mistake wishes for faith.
Hoping that someone will be healed (in this scenario) is rooted in the promises of God, which are numerous and uncompromising. God has promised that His people will be healed, physically, utterly and completely by the agency of Christ's wounds.

This hope is rooted in:
  1. The promise of God which proves that He is willing.
  2. The character of God. He does not lie. He is able. He will remain willing and able.
Faith that someone is being healed is the knowledge that God is healing that person now or soon (If He is healing that person now or soon). This knowledge can be be gained naturally or supernaturally. The faith is that conviction (mental, emotional or spiritual) that what is true (if it is true) is true indeed and not only in desire.

Wishing for a healing is rooted in the desire. If we really, really reallyreallyreally want someone to be healed, could it be? We may cry out, desperate for the healing (for a variety of reasons selfish and altruistic) but without foundation fo knowledge or relationship with God, it is a vain "hope".

The problem that I see is that some Believers evaluate (a separate problem) their faith based upon the depth of their desire which is truly irrelevant outside of the context of relationship with God. When the thing believedin/hopedfor/wished does not manifest, the person feels like a failure, like they need to drum up more desire out of the flesh. In reality the person needs to:
  1. Have their desires changed to line up with His and/or
  2. Ask for more faith
In simple terms (oh yes please make it simple) Our compassion for an individual (though perhaps not Godly) is not the same thing as faith for their healing.

"i just wish i were a toothbrush or a solder gun
make me something somebody can use.
we can wish on the pop of a light-bulb
or those photos lying yellowed and curled.
lose some boxes near abandoned electronics
in the corners of the basements of the world.
guess our wishes don't do dishes or brake repairs
make them something somebody can use."

-The WeakerThans