“Lord, you are Lord and I want to live with you”. Part 1

(A theological reflection in 8 parts)

“Lord, you are Lord and I want to live with you”.

Part 1: The foundation of faith is a recognition of worth and a personal commitment

This is the foundation of faith. I am tempted to say that the foundation is simply, “You are Lord”, but I think a response statement is required, though I am unsure as to what the best statement of response is. “And I want to serve you” would be perfectly acceptable, and is better in terms of being more specific: that the recognition that the Lord is Lord calls us to commit to a particular way of life, which is completely orientated towards doing those things that conform to God’s will, gladly taking on the role of service, rather than self-interest. “And I want to live with you” might sound in comparison to be rather vague – as though you intend to just “move in” with God as some sort of hanger-on, but without any profound commitment. However, these words imply the complete commitment to service for it would be impossible to “live with God” without doing that wholeheartedly, and allowing the reality of living in God’s presence to transform you utterly. In this respect, the commitment to live with God is also a fully comprehensive one, implying a giving of your whole life to God, and including the truthful subtext that it is by being open to God’s presence that we obtain life in all its fullness – that is, to truly “live”.

I call this statement the foundation of faith because, if we have this, we don’t need anything else, for everything else about the spiritual life is contained within it. I like it because it contains 2 elements: the recognition of the truth about God, and a personal response. I think that this is a good place to start the spiritual life. Many people start from the issue of whether or not God truly exists, and incorporate fundamental beliefs about God as creator, or judge, or giver of eternal life. All these things are problematic, at least for some people, because of the impossibility of proving them, and the need to correlate these claims with other things that we know to be true about existence.