One of the challenges we experience and observe in the Christian life is what I'll call "the gap." The gap is the difference between the religious life we practice and the one we "actualize" when the rubber hits the road. The gap is the distance between our religious practices - church going, bible reading, worshiping, listening to Christian music, being a part of a small group - and our actual beliefs. Our actual beliefs are revealed in times of the unexpected - when we face pain, hardship, or even death. But it also comes along when we observe God work in extraordinary ways (note I didn't say "miraculous" ways, because there are no miracles to God - the one for whom all things are well within His abilities). We often find that in these unexpected times, Christians say and do things that depart from what we've been practicing in our faith life.
There's an interesting point - "what we've been practicing." Like many things, our faith is something we practice in the ordinary times so we will be able to rise to the occasion at game time. That's why athletes practice and that's why other professionals practice - so they can perform when the rubber hits the road. Most of life is the practicing - the ordinary places where we grow the roots of our soul so those roots will be strong and deep when the unexpected comes.
A good example of the gap is when Jesus unexpectedly shows up and talks with the two walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus in Luke 24. When the resurrected Christ comes and walks with them, they don't recognize him and they are adrift from what they've been taught. In this moment, Jesus says to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe." (Luke 24:25). Then he questions them and teaches them and reminds them. The gist of his lesson and questions is "Wait a minute, you've learned for years about the Christ, about me - about my crucifixion and my resurrection - and then when it happened, you totally didn't get it, didn't believe it, didn't embrace it, didn't "actualize" it. He is saying to them, "Why are you surprised - you know that the Scriptures were teaching about this, you know what the prophets have written, you've seen what happened to me, and even I told you that I would be tried, crucified, killed, and raised. Why do you guys not believe this?"
Yes, here he is putting his finger on the gap - the distance between what they have learned and nodded to, and what they actually believe. You see, what you actually believe is revealed by how you behave. If you actually believe the resurrection, you at peace in the face of death, knowing that death is a transition, a new kind of birth. But if you have been a church going bible reading person all your life, and then death approaches - if you or I are filled with abject fear - then the gap is showing itself = I don't actually believe what I've been practicing all along. "How foolish we are," to use Jesus' words - because it's actually true. He says in essence, "You didn't think it was all a game did you? A myth, a story, a fairy tale? You didn't think the Bible - the truths of God's scriptures was just for meaningful fireside reading did you? No - it's all about the very truth of life - the very truth of what's real, what's actual, and I am the truth."
It strikes me that these two disciples are going to Emmaus - the place where they lived. It was about 7 miles from Jerusalem, the central place of Israel's faith. It was about a two and a half hour walk. So it was near Jerusalem, but also a good distance from it. It's almost an illustration of the gap - that 7 mile distance between where these disciples lived and where the truth of the faith existed. A 7 mile gap.
Every one of us, if we wish to be growing in faith, growing toward a life of peace, health, and full relationship with God has to ask questions of ourselves about the gap - the distance between what we've been saying we believe and what we actually believe.
