Her Prayer

~ by Samir Selmanovic

Those of you who have been in touch with the Faith House project through this website might recall the post Not A Believer Yet where I described how my younger daughter Leta (9) strenuously argued with her sister Ena (11) and me that the Faith House project cannot succeed.   

Grown ups in general have not given her much hope. Sometimes I have thought  of giving up too and walking up to them and surrendering to prevailing beliefs about humanity, “Yes, you fears are justified.  Humans are selfish and will exclude one another to the very end.  There is nothing we can do about it.” 

Then I realize how stupid it would be for a believer to do such a thing, let alone teach it to my children.  If we believe that humanity and God are actually incapable of imagining and bringing about a better world, why would the (or anyone) join us?

We have painted a picture of a Helpless God.  In contrast, looking back to the Bible, I see God full of hope in humanity, God with faith in us.  And while we may sometimes have given hope and faith, my daughters have not.  They are just entering the stage of life where they are becoming a part of a community greater than the enclosed world made of words and meanings from inherited religion. 

They are full of faith in what can and must be. 

If they are going to be believers at all, they will do it with high expectations of God and high expectations of God’s followers.  They fully expect us to get our faith act together and give up on our power struggles.

Most importantly, they have no interest in belonging to a religion that constantly strains to be on the top.  I used to believe that in order to belong to my religion, my religion must be on top; that only if my religion is supreme, is it worth being a part of.  To that end, I constructed what I thought to be an amazing arsenal of proof:  rational, emotional, biblical, scientific, philosophical, social, and personal. Most of us believers have been in a spiritual arms race.

The major output of the energies of my peers and me went to establish the supremacy of our religion or worldview.  The reality, for us, was not the “kingdom of God,” but a world that is competitive, dangerous, and treacherous place, where God needs to be defended by his followers.

Then I asked myself, “Would I follow Christ even if Christianity were not on top?” 

If I can’t live without that, then it is not Christ that I follow.  It is not faith that I live by, but fear.

What if Christ and Our Father in Heaven are perfectly content with not having Christianity on top?  What if Christ did not come to start a religion, but to teach a way of life?

Soon, very soon, the new generation will push back.  Religion that will not know how to take a back seat to something larger than itself and live for the common good of entire world will be abandoned by them.  And rightly so, I am beginning to think.

What if we are waiting for the fulfillment of a promise that has never been made?   What if love, instead (or in spite) of our religion, is going to take over?  What if the Spirit of Christ is alive and well outside the boundaries of our religion as the Bible affirms?

Recently as we were getting ready to move, my younger one, Leta, got her first email account.  And here is the email message that she sent to me (published with her permission).

_______   

From: Leta Selmanovic
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:25:54
To: Samir Selmanovic 
Subject: moving

Dad,

I love you!  I'm nervous and excited about moving to New York.

Here is a game for you.  Unscramble the words.  The words make a sentence together.  The words are about the faith house.  The answers are on the bottom.

1. Chrisanits   2. ewjs   3. mslimus  4. adn   5. ahteists   6. toeghtre.
_______

As I was reading it, tears welled up in my eyes.  She is not a believer—yet, but there’s a glimmer of hope in her that we can find a way to bless one another, rather than ignore, neglect, or abandon one another.  This little game was her prayer.

I want to follow Christ, regardless of whether any one can classify me as one of the Christians or “Chrisanits.”  Grace for every one, every where, and every time.  Unconditional love. And I believe that right now in some Jewish, Muslim, and atheistic homes some little girls are begging their fathers to give up on the supremacist fantasies of their religions or worldviews and to join the rest of humanity in humility, wonder, and appreciation of the mystery we all find ourselves in. 

We are called to begin the work of hope and faith in others, joining God who hopes and believes in us.  The sons and daughters of our shrinking planet want us to unscramble our faiths and get on with building a world in which they can not only survive, but live richly—“toeghtre.”

Comments

[Priscilla Chee]

Samir,

This is beautiful, and I'm glad that Leta is beginning to hope that it will all work out. I know how hard it is to see the state this world is in and yet have hope that something can be done about it. It is so big and we are so small... but God is bigger.

(I miss you, Vesna, and the girls, so, so much.)

Take care,
Priscilla