Life and Other Mysteries

What does it mean to have faith? Is it that thing that we cannot see and we choose to say because our physical eyes can’t see it – it can’t exist or do we say it still exists anyway? Do we discern this with spiritual or physical eyes? A couple of examples to illustrate where I am going with this: we can’t see the wind but does that mean it doesn’t exist? No for one can surely say they can see and feel the effects of the wind. We can see things being moved by this force but can’t see the force by which the object is being moved. What about gravity as another example? If someone where to say hey you know what I don’t believe in gravity and jumped off a building – we all know that would be a very foolish choice based on the evidence provided to us about gravity. They would jump to their emanate doom. Therefore, can it be said that because we can’t see something; that in itself has no implication for something not existing. The same thing can be said about God. Just because we can’t see Him does not mean he doesn’t exist as we can see the effects of God all around us. By the sun rising everyday, the birds singing in the morning, the beautiful blue sky cluttered with big white fluffy clouds to a brightly colored flower swaying in a gentle breeze right down to the stars that light the sky at night.

The bible defines faith this way: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬- ‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬ Another translation puts it this way: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Contrary to popular teaching, faith is not mental delusion, presumption or self-deception, but a work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. I came across a great quote by C.S. Lewis who is quickly becoming one of my favorite Christian philosophers: “The state of mind which desperate desire working on a strong imagination can manufacture is not faith in the Christian sense. It is a feat of psychological gymnastics.” If we can perceive the effects of God: faith therefore is expressed in our certainty that He does in fact exist.

In conclusion, I think faith has two elements: 1) being convinced of the truth, being certain of reality, having evidence of unseen things, and 2) believing, hoping in, and embracing, seizing the truth.