One of the greatest tech innovation of our time is Shazam, a smartphone app that listens to a song, and in seconds gives you its details. (Nobel committee are you paying attention? Try it sometime!)

Anyway, I was watching an episode of the TV show “Landman“, when they played a song that struck me as a quintessential Texas song. I grabbed my iPhone, and in seconds I had identified the song.

Besides liking that Texas twang (I love the sound of the banjo), the lyrics in verse 4 struck me as being deeply profound.

I met a man, pale gray with wisdom
Told me faith will come collect

Mean Old Sun by The Turnpike Troubadours

The first line immediately resonated with me because I believe that wisdom comes with age, but the second line took some thought. The more I thought about “faith will come collect“, the more I understood its meaning.

The old adage “we learn from our mistakes” (hopefully), implies that the price we pay for learning is often having to deal with the consequences of our mistakes. Sometimes that’s money, but the price always includes time.

Faith, something I hear about all the time, something I strive for, does not come easily. If, as the lyric says, “faith will come collect”, then there will be a price to pay before I can posses it. It dawned on me that I’ve never thought about either the price, or if I’m willing to pay.

What is that price?

I believe that there is price to pay for everything. (See my post “Everything has a Price“.) CONTINUE HERE!!!

• Is it even true that there is a price to pay for faith?
  • Does G-d give it to us for free?
  • What about the price of time?
• I recall many stories about martyrs, does one have to die for faith?
• Is it something that comes with practice? (“fake it till you make it”)
• Can you even perform a cost-benefit analysis (CBA)?
  • Pascal’s Wager doesn’t help me with the issue of faith, or anyway to do a CBA.