I've been thinking about faith over the last two days. Faith meaning the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen (Hebrews 11:1).

I have been at a conference over the last couple of days and the thing that struck me is that I have a belief in the bible and what it says - I do actually believe it. But I don't seem to have the faith to always follow that through. Now that is an interesting place to be if you think about it. How can you believe that something is true but when push comes to shove you aren't sure if it will actually happen? perhaps that means I don't really believe at all? The way I see it is like bungy jumping. I believe it is safe because I've seen people do it and I don't hear about injuries but you still won't get me doing it because I don't feel safe. I would encourage someone to do it if they wanted to but I never will.

I think I've figured out that faith is a journey.

So if faith is a journey, then I must have a journey that I'm going on. How do I know how far along that journey I am? How do I tell what the next part of the journey is? and if I could take the next step before I was forced too, what would it be?

I've taken a couple of steps recently that I know in my head are the right choices but they put me well outside of my comfort zone. I would tell you that I have done this in faith but honestly I'm not sure I ACTUALLY have the confidence that it's going to work out. So I'm not sure if I can call it faith. It's a strange place to be - between belief and faith. I'm not even sure how I describe where I'm at right now. I'm going to call it a faith building exercise.

There are some moments in life that just take your breath away - today was one of those for Rich and I. So let me tell you the story about a ride on the public transport home on a cold wet Wellington day.

Rich and I had finished work for the day and while waiting for the bus, got talking about our weekend. Rich asked me if I went to the Street City Church on Sunday night and how I found it. We got on the bus and sat opposite each other on the bus as it was pretty full. We carried on talking over the isle about the respective sermons we had heard and the impact they had on on us. We carried on talking about church and God for most of the trip home.

When a lull in the conversation arrived, the girl sitting next to Rich asked what church we both went to. Rich replied with each of ours and immediately as Rich said his, a man sitting across from Rich erupted with disgust at the Church Rich attended.

The crazed man proceeded to yell at Rich and asking him questions with no space for the bemused Rich to answer. When the crazed man was finished he closed his eye, shock his head and said something to the effect of "I wasn't going to say anything and now I'm not going to talk about it". Rich started to offer replies to the questions that had been asked of him. The man just talked straight over the top of Rich saying "No, nope, I'm done talking about this" and then after a second he carried on asking questions and making statements that Rich wasn't allowed to answer!

To Rich's credit, he didn't get upset but just smiled to himself while trying to start a conversation he was clearly being denied of.
I snapped at this point and got my loud voice on saying "Oi, are you going to let him (Rich) talk?". The crazed man then addressed me with a range of questions that I ignored while I raised my voice and asked the man if he would talk with Rich again. The crazed man told me he would NOT have a conversation with Rich but wouldn't give a reason why.

The poor girl sitting next to Rich looked a little shocked and laughed a little as she watched what her question had led Rich into ensued. Conveniently all three of us, Rich, the girl, and I all got off at the same stop. We all laughed and had a quick chat about her being new in town and wanting to find a church. Without being interrupted, Rich and I told her about some of the churches we know. Hopefully she wasn't put off by the crazy man and maybe, just maybe we will see her sometime.

The thing that stuck out to Rich the most was his comment "...if he's (Rich) strong enough in himself he can take it..." Well yes Rich and I might well be strong enough in our views to handle it, but I don't think our other passengers on the bus are strong enough in their life views to not realise you're a bit of a nob.