The following excerpts are reprinted with permission from “, by Glen Grehan.
Excerpt One:
“What does it mean to have faith in God? Christians walk into a church, confess that they believe in God, and then, bang, off to Heaven they go. It’s bizarre, really.If you consider a coach and you’re at the sideline ready to go on, the coach says, “I have faith in you.” You’re dressed in uniform, you’re about to embark on a challenge, about to enter an arena. That statement is more than a description of events. To have faith in you is a deeper inner belief in what you can do, what you’re capable of, what might happen.So we know what faith is going downwards. Faith going upwards must be the very same. Christians need to be more active, more engaged.”
Why this piece matters
This reel attacks the idea that faith is just intellectual assent, saying I believe in God and assuming that is enough for heaven. It re-frames faith as lived trust and engagement, using imagery from sport and coaching that most readers can feel viscerally.
The core move
The reel compares a coach on the sideline saying “I have faith in you” to a player: the words only make sense because the player is in uniform, entering an arena, about to risk success or failure. From there it argues that Christians have mis-applied the word faith upwards: if faith from coach to player means risk-laden confidence in action, then faith from human to God must also be more than a bare statement; it is an ongoing, active entrusting of life, choices, and effort.
What it asks the reader
– Where in my actual week does my claimed faith force me to act differently, at some personal cost?
– Am I content being a spectator who chants the right slogans, or am I willing to be the player whose life is visibly on the line?
– If God were the coach, what would it look like for me to finally go on the pitch instead of standing forever at the sideline of belief?
Excerpt Two:
To create resonance for our prayers, one must be in a relationship with God. How can we achieve this? Well, there are two great models: Christ and the Buddha. The Bible and Mahayana Sutras are holy works, for sure. Understanding their human nature, however, is how we realize their divine nature. Look outside the holy works and try to imagine their lives, to feel it. Try to think like them.Like Christ, can you say that you are courageous and kind in every moment? Like the Buddha, do you consider fully the oneness in each moment? Even to attempt this, to take the first step, can produce the kind of results you had hoped for through prayer.
Why this piece matters
This reel grounds prayer in relationship and imitation rather than in technique or superstition. It also bridges Christian and Buddhist traditions, presenting Christ and the Buddha as living models whose human lives illuminate their divinity.
The core move
The author says that prayers gain resonance when they arise from a genuine relationship with God, patterned on the life and mind of Christ, rather than from mechanical repetition or increased volume of requests. The point is that Jesus models a way of being, courageous, kind, which, when imitated, gradually aligns a person’s desires with God’s purposes, so that what they ask is already moving in the same direction as the divine will.
In this view, unanswered or weak prayer is not mainly a problem of technique but of distance: talking at God like a stranger, or treating prayer as a transaction, lacks the shared life that would give those words weight. By seeking first the relationship, trying to think, feel, and act with God in daily choices, the believer’s inner world changes, and answered prayer becomes the outward sign of an already deepening communion rather than a prize won by frequency or formula.
What it asks the reader
– When I pray, am I trying to bargain with a distant power, or to grow into the likeness of Christ and the Buddha I claim to admire?
– What specific situation today could I approach by asking, “How would Christ act here; how would the Buddha see this moment of oneness?”
– If my prayers seem unanswered, is it possible that I have not yet taken the first concrete step my own prayer implies?
