Participants of ropes courses, regardless of how confident they are, have to display an immense amount of trust. They have to trust the tower; that it was designed and maintained properly, and will function as it's supposed to. They have to trust the leaders who monitor the entire process and let the participants know when to proceed. They have to trust the belay team, who holds the rope that catches them if they fall. They even have to trust the rope itself (literally their life line). In my opinion, trust is the most important thing that happens at a high ropes course.
I've seen many people climb these courses, cross the elements, and descend on a zip line. While some people move pretty quickly and show little to no fear, others are terrified before they're even halfway up. The experiences I remember most are not the ones where athletic folks traversed the elements in record time, but the ones where people were scared, and I had to spend time sitting with them, listening to them, and guiding them through their emotions and toward their next move. These are the people who have to display the most trust; the ones who are afraid...the ones who doubt. They show their trust by climbing, through their fears and doubts. I think that faith works the same way.
Oftentimes we as a Church equate faith with belief. Many churches interpret Ephesians 2:8 as, "It is by grace that you have been saved through belief in Jesus..." The health and prosperity churches teach that when our prayers are not answered, it is because we do not have enough faith, or we do not believe strongly enough in what we have asked for. When we struggle with doubt or wrestle with questions about God, we often call it a "faith crisis".
While belief works correspondingly with faith, I don't think that "belief" is an adequate definition of "faith". From my experience, "trust" defines "faith" much better than "belief" does. I cannot decide to believe something, but I can decide to put my faith or trust into something. Like the climbers who put their trust in their teammates and the equipment, Christians put their trust or faith in Jesus. Belief is understanding the climbing process; faith is climbing. Belief is believing that Jesus is real; faith is following him. Belief is a state of mind, where faith is an action. So when James says "Faith without works is dead," that resonates with me, because I think that faith without works is impossible.
But belief does enter into the equation. Like the experienced climbers, who strongly believe in the equipment, trust is easy for them. They believe the equipment will hold up. They believe the belay team has their back. So they can trust them and climb without worry. Those who are scared, who doubt that the team will truly be able to take care of them, have to exhibit a much higher level of trust. It is easy to trust with strong belief; it is hard to trust with fear and doubt.
As such, I think it's fair to say that it takes stronger faith to follow Jesus through fear and doubt than it does through confidence and assurance. It takes commitment, and a faith that takes action when belief is uncertain shows stronger commitment than when everything is hunky dory. A season of doubt then, should not be described as a "faith crisis" if you're still committed to following Jesus, but rather a "faith exercise".
Perhaps, it shows more faith for a terrified climber to make it halfway up the tower than a confident climber completing in in record time. Through time and experience though, that same fearful person may be able to climb just as high, but it has taken them much more faith and commitment to get to that level. I think both ways are good, and both types of climbers should understand and encourage each other. Regardless of our level of belief, may we all strive toward faith that is active, and me way help each other to keep climbing.
