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Be Not Afraid Faithmay seem mad to you, but I am unalterably firm in it.I joyfully place myself at the mercy of God, and praisehim for carrying out his will on my body…”Admirable as it is, such conviction is not grantedto everyone. In fact, there are plenty of people forwhom the idea of faith as a weapon against illness isincomprehensible, if not foolhardy. As Merrill wouldhave been the first to point out, such a view doesn’talter God’s power or rob him of it. But it does presenta challenge. What should one do when a dying personhas no belief in redemption or in life after death, andsees no reason to prepare to meet God? What aboutsomeone who, like the agnostic eighty-year-old fatherof a friend, says he can’t think of anything more tediousthan everlasting life, and mutters about the uselessnessof the “F-word,” as he calls faith?As I see it, there is little point in discussing suchissues. “Religious” questions tend to divide people justas often as they bring them together, and in any case Ifeel it is far more important to surround a terminallyill person with compassion than to bring him aroundto your point of view. Beyond that, there is nothing tostop us from interceding for someone else – whethersomeone who has lost faith, or someone who never hadit. Author Bruce Epperly writes:16