Dear Faith Family,
For those that might have forgotten (us dads and sons!), Mother's Day is this coming Sunday. So, in honor of this special day, I thought it appropriate timing to share with you words of wisdom from one mother to her son,
"Let this be a mother's gift; find yourself a faith, it helps. No, not helps. It is everything."
Deedra and I have been watching the latest season of The Crown during the quarantine. It is a fictional, loosely historical account of various moments in the British royal family. If you didn't know, we have Anglophile tendencies! Anyway, one fo the episodes this season focused on the Duke of Edinburgh--Prince Philp, the Queen's husband--and his princess turned nun mother. Princess Alice is her official title. Having suffered from the best treatments of modern-psychology and survived the worst disintegrations of societal expectations and political unrest, she became a nun in the Greek Orthodox Church. Her personal traumas distanced her son from her for most of his life, but at the end of her life, they find themselves unintentionally reunited. In a long-overdue inquiry, she asks Prince Philip, "How is your faith?" The duke's reply is diffident, implying that faith is not a critical component in his life. To this, Princess Alice speaks the wisdom quoted above.
While this exchange between this mother and her son may or may not have happened as described, the powerful truth of the statement is undiminished. Faith is more than a help, a supplement to aid in our survival; it is as vital to life as air. Paul has been speaking the same words to you and me in chapters 2-3 of Galatians, "find yourself a faith in Jesus crucified," Paul would say to his family in Christ, "it helps. No, not helps. It is everything. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."
The trust that God is here and shares his life with us is everything: the foundation on which we can endure the storms and rudder by which we navigate the seas of life. A few episodes later, Prince Philip discovers the truth of his mother's wisdom as the things he holds on to for stability and direction prove frail. Might we too heed the words of a mother to her child, and find a faith to hold us fast.
Love you faith family. God bless.