The Fabric of Faithfulness

I have read today for a half of the day. I needed to finish the book The Fabric of Faithfulness - Steven Garber, one of the requirements for one of the classes I am talking for my Master's. Though very difficult to read and very difficult to understand in the begining, after a while it became accessible..

What is the book all about? The author of the book is a teacher whose main preocupation is to help his students connect what they believe about the world and how they live in the world. Some other questions he is trying to answer are: What do I care about? What do I believe and why do I believe? How does a world view become a way of life?

The author is trying to find out why is it so difficult to connect what we believe with how we believe in the fist chapters of the book. Then he presents stories of succes, of people who manage to live a life of integrity in a challanging world.

I found very interesing the chapters he is talking about education and its purpose. He says that „education must be oriented to preparation for a calling and not trainning for a career”. He is also emphasizing a lot the importance of the teacher being the students´ friend not only a teacher behind a desk and also the importance of developing friendships with people who have chosen to live their lives embedded in the same worldview.

Connecting what I believe with how I live... What is my place in the world? Do I make any difference? Do I care? Do I live a life of integrity where I do what I say?

I realise more and more that it is so easy to believe something and to live something else. God needs people of integrity, people who found their place in the world, who care, who believe and live for Him, who live what they believe, people who make a difference just because God lives in them, people who will be able to stand for the truth and defend because they know what they believe, they know why they believe and they live what they believe.

If people were able to die for what they believe, it is just because their worldview became a way of life. If people are happy or unhappy, it is because of their worldview. "It is the difference between a worldview which brings integration to the whole of one's existence and one which brings desintegration."

Lord, help us develop a worldview that has You in the center and help us understand that "truth cannot be something we hold on to theoretically with no real-life consequence, that knowing and doing, hearing and obeying are integrally connnected for people whose convictions are trully and deeply Christians."