To unite the broken pieces of life:
the eleventh faith characteristic listed in Alton’s letter recognizes
that being broken our lives are far from perfect. Yet through faith even from
this brokenness we find underlying unity and purpose. Even the negative, wayward parts of our lives
can be seen as contributing however dearly to current positive
insight and growth. In this way the
negative is subsumed into the positive.
We can say in faith that our experiences have often (despite ourselves) contributed
to God’s plan and purpose for our lives.
Our vision, our insight have been limited. But even when we were willful and blind, God’s
loving hand protected and guided us to redemption even while inescapable
consequences of our misdeeds played themselves out. In this way, faith is not an escape from
reality and consequences, but it imbues life through acceptance with the
strength to endure and overcome. Faith,
while not coddling, is a means leading to eventual acceptance of reality in all
its parts including the reality of ourselves. Unkindly one can say that this is redemption through rationalization. But faith steadfastly insists otherwise.
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