Crisis of Faith
by: Dr. Rami Nader
It is
always exciting and encouraging to be around someone who has just become a
Christian. They seem to be so full of passion for God and so keen to find
ways of serving and actively developing their faith. In many ways, it
becomes contagious and a source of encouragement for others. Not only are
these the people who attend church regularly, they actively seek ways to
participate in the church and become a blessing to others. I observed this
first hand on a number of occasions when I was a youth group leader at St.
Simon's church in North Vancouver. To see young people filled with passion
and enthusiasm for God is such an inspiring thing.
Unfortunately, I have also observed what happens when the initial thrill
and excitement of a newly found faith disappears and people experience
what I will call a "crisis of faith". The crisis of faith is when the
tremendous joy of salvation begins to fade and living out faith seems to
become more of a chore than a blessing. Daily prayer times and scripture
reading become relegated to something that is done when the priorities of
the day are taken care of. Living out faith becomes ever increasingly
difficult because of all of the other demands of life. The person in a
crisis of faith goes to church simply because that is what he has always
done. Eventually, the monotony of warming a pew becomes too much and the
person stops going altogether.
James 4:8 states, "Come near to God and he will come near to you." It is a
call for us to approach God, rather than expecting Him always to be
approaching us. The original passion of a young Christian is demonstrated
by time spent daily in prayer, praise and service. And with all of that,
they experience God as never before. But when the prayer, praise and
service become less frequent, overtaken by the demands of life, God seems
more distant. This is when you hear complaints like, "I don't get anything
out of church anymore" or "I don't feel fed spiritually". This becomes the
crisis of faith. The person stops growing in their faith because they do
not feel close to God and they do not feel close to God, because their
faith has stopped growing.
There is a psychological approach to treatment called cognitive-behavioral
therapy (CBT), used to treat a variety of emotional problems including
anxiety and depression. Essentially, the core feature of CBT is the
relationship between our behaviours (what we do), our thoughts (what we
think) and our emotions (how we feel). How you feel depends on how you
think and what you do. Applying CBT to the crisis of faith, if a person is
not playing an active role in developing their faith and think that they
will have a closer relationship with God by passively waiting for it to
happen, they will be disappointed and discouraged when a sense of
closeness to God does not occur. This disappointment and discouragement
then makes it less likely that the person will spend time in prayer and
devotions, which can then lead to further thoughts that God is distant and
the cycle spirals.
Fortunately, just as this cycle can work in negative ways to sap faith and
connection with God, it can work in positive ways to help grow your faith.
By changing behaviour (e.g., spending time in prayer, reading the Bible
regularly, being an active member of your church), this can help influence
the way you think about your faith (e.g., what role am I playing in
growing my faith). Ultimately, this will begin to impact on your feelings
and sense of closeness to God. In order for any relationship to grow and
develop, you have to be an active participant. If you are experiencing a
sense of separation from God, the first step should be to take an honest
look at what you have been doing to develop your relationship with God and
make changes accordingly. God has promised that he will be faithful to
that "Come near to God and he will come near to you".
(Article appeared in the Spiritually Speaking Column of the North Shore
News on February 9, 2007)