Don't think it strange when I say that faith is a discipline, because we grow from "faith to faith." And it takes real discipline to take one step in faith and then another. If we live by faith, we are pleasing to God, while if we live by experience we will be displeasing. Whether we live by faith or by experience we arrive at the same answer. If we did not do this, then living by faith would be unrealistic and experience would be realistic. This would mean that faith would be untrue, but it certainly isn't. An example of this would be a parent who says to their young child, "Don't put your hand on the stove. It's hot. It will burn you." Every parent would want the child to live by faith. However, if the child refuses to live by faith, he or she can find out that the parent's admonition is true and experience will lead them to the same place where faith would have led --- keeping hands off the stove. However, living by experience leaves scars. Many of us have chosen not to live by faith. You, surely, are thinking about a scar that you have and will carry for the rest of your life simply because you were not willing to live by faith. Faith is an extreme discipline.
May I mention some specific faiths which are necessary for life?
1) Self — If I had any one gift to give you it would be the gift of confidence. More people fail through fear than through inability. However, those who would escape from utilizing their full talents might say, "But, I don't want self-confidence, it makes you cocky. I want to be humble." May I share with you the best definition of humility that I have ever heard? "Humility is not denying the power you have, but admitting that the power comes through you and not from you." I want to remind you that while it is important to have a vision of what you can be, it is also very important to not be deceived into developing a mirage. A mirage comes in the heat of emotion when you become stagestruck, or it may be in the overwhelming surge of emotion that leads you to make a career decision that isn't a vision, but a mirage. God needs men and women of vision, not mirage. The reason there are not many of us who accomplish our vision is that we develop psychological barriers. As you go through life you will constantly have to recognize the barriers which grow up in all of us, and quickly destroy them. The breaking of psychological barriers is a great contribution, not only to yourself, but to others. Roger Bannister, when he disciplined himself to break the 4 minute mile did it by hard practice running a single quarter under a minute, adding another quarter under two minutes, one more under three minutes and then he knew he could go four quarters under four minutes. As soon as he broke the barrier, other runners immediately broke the mark, as well. You see this in other fields, as well. We develop psychological barriers and as soon as someone has the discipline to drive themselves through that barrier, others are able to follow quickly. There is great magic in believing. But, Bannister did not try to break the barrier by the magic of believing, this simply gave him the spirit to work. There is magic in believing, if you don't believe in magic.
2) Faith in others — Bill Sorensen is one of the most popular men I know in industry. The other night when he was on leave from Lima, Peru, I got to questioning him about his philosophy which had made it so easy for him to get along with so many different nationalities and do such an effective job. He had reasoned it very well and was willing to share it. He said, "I have worked very hard to kill off any suspicion of people. I accept people as friends until they definitely prove themselves otherwise." People are looking so much for the warmth of true friendliness and acceptance, that they are attracted to him. I have a feeling that they treasure this genuine warmth so much they would not do anything to put themselves outside its perimeter.
3) Faith in God — It might seem foolish for me to put this as a specific discipline, yet I am convinced it is. Do you remember when Billy Graham got power? It was when he took his doubts by the nape of the neck and with an open Bible, sat on a tree stump and said to God, "I will believe." George Schweitzer, graduating from college as a young agnostic, spent two years disciplining himself to either believe or disbelieve God. He said the #1 question in his life that would have to be decided as a scientist, "Is anybody running this place?" If someone were running it, then he needed to know what were the principles upon which He ran it. If he decided that no one was running it, then every man was for himself.
Three questions that I have been asked and tried to answer are three of the best:
a) Do I really believe in God?
Am I a professing Christian and a practicing agnostic? Do I say I believe, but in my actions prove that I doubt? Do I preach faith, but worry? DO I preach forgiveness from sin, but continue to carry a guilt complex? Do I believe that people are lost, but refuse to win them?
b) Does He see me now?
Not does He see me some of the time, not that He sees yesterday or tomorrow, but right now. Not that He will see me in heaven, or at church or even in some den of iniquity, but just simply ---- does He see me now?
c) Will I give an account?
Will I give a specific account? Do I really believe the accounting is real and is coming? An account of what?
The discipline of faith which I have talked about is not that which lets an Edward R. Murrow write, "This I Believe", but rather a faith that drives an Oswald Chambers to write "My Utmost For His Highest."
As I conclude let me remind you of King Agamemnon in Homer's Iliad as he considered surrendering to the Trojans. Nestor asked that he be permitted to speak to the men. He stood up and in the night said, "All about us burn the fires of the Trojans. Upon our decision tonight rests the fate of Greece." Graduates, all about you burn the fires of failure and upon your decisions for discipline rest the fate of your success.
