What does faith look like?

I've been listening to a great series, his current series, on Faith & Doubt by Greg Boyd. Today I listened to one called Imagine. This message is about how to have faith in the midst of really hard things. He shared about their 25 year-old son, and his struggles, and their pain due to his autism. I, too, have wrestled with hard things, and wondered how to live in faith and joy in the face of them.

We can't fix the world, but we're not allowed to do hopeless.

So what DO we do? I've come to realize...I spend a lot of time trying to "fix" things. My goodness, my whole life is about trying to improve thigns in one way or another. However, I'm realizing...it can go too far. And some things don't seem to change.

So what does faith look like in the middle of an unfixable situation?

He mentioned the people that used to be idealistic. They are the ones that can get really bitter and cynical in the end. Or, perhaps now they are still really angry about the wrong in the world, the injustices--they are the ones who still think they can do something to fix it.

We can't fix it. We're not supposed to be the ones to fix it. WAIT!!  Everything in me ragese against that thought. What, are we supposed to give in to despair? Are we supposed to give up and walk away? 

And yet I have struggled, and asked many times in the past year, "Lord, what am I supposed to do with this pain?" There are things that I cannot change, although I wish I could and at times I have tried. 

In the message he takes us to another perspective...to remembering, and looking forward to the day when Christ will reign as victor over all these things, when there will be no more pain and tears. (Did I say I recommend this series?  Serious, take a listen!)

And in the meantime we live in faith. We still do what we can, but we're somehow released from having to "fix" things. And it still hurts.

God, ...help us to have the faith to go on, 
keep making whatever difference we can make, 
knowing we can't fix it.