Shifting Sands

Recently while witnessing, I came to an interesting objection. "Yes, I would like to receive eternal life, but I'm afraid that my faith is too small." Given various constraints, I couldn't find out more clearly what that meant and where that came from. But I think it was something like this: he seemed preoccupied from the start with what the Holy Spirit was all about. He'd mentioned that he'd gone to a church recently (charismatic I surmise) where everyone was talking about how they could feel the Holy Spirit moving through the place. Yet he felt nothing. I think he had the impression that if God had not revealed Himself to him as concretely as those people claimed, then he could not be as confident as those people, and hence his faith wasn't strong enough. But faith isn't in what is seen. We fix our eyes on that which is unseen. Besides, I think that God has been making Himself known to him already but the Holy Spirit has not yet enabled him to recognize that. I pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to him all the ways in which God has already been working in his life.
Anyway, I think that if it were a matter of how strong our convictions are, we'd be no better off than if eternal life were contingent upon our works. How many times did Jesus say, "you of little faith" to the disciples? They who saw and experienced many things. At the end of the day, it comes down to this: do you trust in what Jesus did for your eternal life to the exclusion of what you have done or what any other powers might do? Either you do or you don't - not how much.
I've been thinking about this and I'm left with this question. Do we have the tendency to put our trust in our own faith? Is the foundation upon which we stand self-centred or God-centred? It makes me think of a song that fits so well with what I've been thinking.

Sometimes I believe all the lies
So I can do the things I should despise
And everyday I am swayed
By whatever is on my mind

I hear it all depends on my faith
So I'm feeling precarious
The only problem I have with these mysteries
Is they're so mysterious

And like a consumer I've been thinking
If I could just get a bit more
More than my fifteen minutes of faith
Then I'd be secure

My faith is like shifting sand
Changed by every wave
My faith is like shifting sand
So I stand on grace

I've begged you for some proof
For my Thomas eyes to see
A slithering staff, a leprous hand
And lions resting lazily

A glimpse of your back-side glory
And this soaked altar going ablaze
But you know I've seen so much
And I explained it away

Waters rose as my doubts reigned
My sand-castle faith it slipped away
Found myself standing on your grace
It'd been there all the time
-Caedmon's Call

If we are faithless, He will remain faithful. I don't even have the mustard seed sized faith to move any mountain or even a stooped foothill. Thank God I can stand instead upon His grace which had been there even before I fell dead in the Garden.