Let me start by assuring you no humans were hurt.

In July, my wife Jen picked up a college friend at Logan airport in Boston so they could join other friends in New Hampshire for a reunion. As they were driving on a two-lane highway, a bear suddenly filled the road and there was nothing to do but meet it at 65 miles per hour. Jen had her own Hollywood movie stunt driving experience—all four wheels launched off the ground and crashed back to earth with many screams in between. Our van limped along for a while before it needed to be towed. It was totaled. Before Jen departed New Hampshire, she returned to the van to gather everything we wanted to keep, and thank God, her friend made her take my “Little Baby Yoda” that was sitting on the dashboard.

Officially, his name is Grogu, but he’s Little Baby Yoda to me (In the Star Wars universe, he appears in The Mandalorian series). Other people put their faith in St. Christopher to keep them safe, but Little Baby Yoda does the job for me. He’s now keeping watch on the dashboard of our new van. He may be just a plastic figurine, but I remind you that our van used a bear as a launch pad and my wife and her friend walked away unharmed.

Jen’s serious experience and my silly “faith” got me thinking about what faith is based on and the role of faith in our lives. Where do the lines between faith and superstition get drawn? What or whom do you trust the most when the chips are down? I’ve been content with Jesus (and Little Baby Yoda), but there are other Christians who want more. I remember a conversation with a friend who is an elder in an RCA church. We talked about many things, including following Jesus, living our faith, and our current President, about whom we disagreed. It was a good conversation, but it ended with him saying these words: “I know what Jesus says is the truth, and as a pastor you have to follow that, but I believe these priorities are more important in the real world.” There was a gap between what what our faith has historically believed and what he saw as important in the real world. We departed as friends, but I was brokenhearted. I lean towards the writer of Hebrews speaking of faith as “the conviction of things unseen.” He was interested in something else, something tangible—not the conviction of things unseen but the cold hard facts of success. The idol of success.

Two thoughts come to mind. I’m quite influenced by Robert Capon’s view of Jesus in his book, The Parables of the Kingdom. I love when Capon ends the first chapter with these words: “Trust Jesus, then. After that, theologize all you want. Just don’t lose your sense of humor if your theological surfboard deposits you unceremoniously in the drink” (27).  These words capture my thoughts and give me a fair bit of humility with all my theologizing. Faith … Trust … Jesus. Seems simple, but then there’s my second reflection. Capon adds in his book, The Parables of Judgment, “Jesus’ plan of salvation works only with the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead; the living, the great, the successful, the found, and the first simply will not consent to the radical slimming down that Jesus, the Needle of God, calls for if he is to pull them through into the kingdom” (47—here Capon is commenting on Jesus’ “Eye of the Needle” teaching).

Faith is about trusting Jesus, but that trust is going to lead us right where most of us don’t want to go—through the eye of the needle. I want to be successful and be the pastor of a great, growing church. I want to be first. Despite that, Jesus repeatedly leads where I don’t want to go. I don’t think I’m alone. How many church splits have happened because, frankly, a portion of the church wants to be “living, great, successful, found, and first”? We’re left with a wide array of Christians handing their lives over to priorities that are more important in the real world.That world will never take the narrow path where Jesus is … with the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead.

Trust Jesus. Keep your sense of humor (thank you Little Baby Yoda). Cast aside the idols of success and greatness, and on the Sundays to come this month we’ll talk more about faith, truth, Capon, and what a path forward might look like.