I’ve talked a lot about faith in this column, but what is faith, really?
Hebrews 11 claims that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. They are typified by Abraham, who, called by God went out, not knowing whither he went. He was also a visionary man: For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Skeptics often confuse faith with credulity, i.e., blind hoping against any evidence. Actually, true faith is based on profound evidence, some of which is seen not by our natural eyes but by the eyes of the heart. For the things that are seen are temporal, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor, 4: 18). Jesus himself had such vision, and it helped him endure unimaginable agony: For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame. . . (Heb. 12: 2) faith is a trusting vision, resulting in obedient action. The great explorers from Columbus at the new world to Neil Armstrong on the moon; writers from Sophocles to Rizal; artists from Michelangelo to Mozart; missionaries from St. Paul (I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision—Acts 26:19) to Judson Taylor, with his vision of evangelizing China; and inventors like Thomas Edison or my grandfather, John Roskamp, were all men, and not a few women, of faith. They were “visionaries’; they had a faith-endued vision. They’re sometimes called “heroes of faith,” and rightly so. My grandpa has been my hero for most of seven decades.
In the summer of 1949 we drove in a caravan from Cedar Falls, Iowa to a lake on the Canadian border, for a fishing trip. (I caught the biggest fish!) This picture dates back to this time.
A Stand-up Guy (John Roskamp, 1882-1997)
He dared to step forward, getting his feet wet
and plunging his soul into the unknown future,
fulfilling his dream of a special machine*
yet standing on solid ground of faith.
He sang loudly and off-key in the little brown church,
to the God he loved: My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
“If we live and be well” he’d often say, at dinner,
and then go smoke his cigar in his oak-panelled den,
in his easy chair, at the end of the day at “the shop”.
Inventor, manufacturer, a man of strength and integrity,
he was a stand-up man, a visionary—
(the Great Depression and bankruptcies couldn’t stop him)
as a young man he had a vision
and as an old man, continued to dream.**
Not perfect, but a man of faith.
His legacy is sure: a still-functioning factory,
eight children and countless grandchildren
and an inspiration for this old man (me)
who also wants to invent,
make a difference,
leave a legacy.
Requiescat en Pace, Grandpa,
loved forever, and living on in heaven
and in our hearts. —HPK
*A machine to clean oats of their indigestible hulls and later,
a corn grinder, made in the Roskamp Manufacturing Company,
Cedar Falls, Iowa.
**See Acts 2:17b.
Hebrews 11 also states, Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is a relationship with our Source, and an adventure. If you don’t have it, ask Jesus to come in, forgive your unbelief and other sins, and give it to you.
