Faith. What is faith? Is it real? Do only ignorant people have faith? Is it normal? How can you get it? What does it mean to our lives and us?

Faith is a normal occurrence in our everyday lives. Self-proclaimed intellectuals think only ignorant people have faith. Then they board an airplane, ride elevators, walk the streets of major cities, take prescription drugs, travel on ocean faring ships, send their children to school, have surgery, or drive more than 55 miles an hour on a multi-lane highway barely missing the oncoming traffic by a few feet. All of these require faith that machinery or people will not make a mistake. The problem is we all know machinery and people fail. When we go to sleep at night, we commonly think about tomorrow. Is it not faith that we believe we will wake up once again? Every time we take a breath it may be our last yet we don't become overly concerned this is true. Life would be too hard if we let this bother us, so we accept the risk and have faith that the next breath will come. We have faith that other people truly exist but we can't prove it. Faith is a normal everyday process; to deny this is to be ignorant.

Remember as a child learning to ride a bicycle. You could see other people ride but it seemed difficult. Some of us used training wheels so we could get assistance. Others had parents or brothers or sisters who would hold the bike upright as we pedaled. At some point we would have to ride without help. We had to learn to balance, to not panic, to steer and pedal at the same time. Inevitably we would wreck and get bruised or frightened. One day it all came together and there was nothing to it. We could ride all day if we chose. Even today many years later we can still ride a bike but still may wreck. Learning about faith has many like characteristics. It's scary, exciting, risky, a learning process, and a better way to get around than walking.

Paul said, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of the things not seen." For more than ten years I tried to understand this statement. When people would reference this statement, they would blow right by it like it was obvious. So many times people will explain things by saying it's self-explanatory. My feeling is that if it's that easy to understand then it shouldn't be hard to use other words to say the same thing. In spiritual matters, science or logic or philosophy cannot prove our ambitions, our dreams, and our destiny. The mechanics of our mind can build many physical objects. Only with faith can we give substance and form to that which cannot be proven by normal means. I cannot give any satisfying physical evidence that God exists or that I have been saved. I can produce an implicit outline of these things with the fruit of my faith. When the Bible says, faith without works is dead, it is referring to this fruit which is what others can see. Works have no value without faith because the purpose of works is to reveal the source of the faith, God.

Will faith make everything okay, stop people from dying, prevent tragedy, make all of our problems go away, stop war from happening, fix all of our family problems, force everyone to hold hands and sing "We Are the World"? NO! It can answer some of these problems, some of the time. It can provide comfort. It can help us do our part, fulfill our purpose. It can give us that edge, blessing, communication with our Creator. Faith can help us hold the line until it is not needed. You may ask, when will faith be unnecessary. The answer is simple, the next life when all tears will be wiped away and the things of this world have passed away. Until then, faith is essential.

- 1996