What is faith? There are so many different places and ways I have seen it used. Sometimes I wonder if those who use it, even myself, realize what we are implying when we say it. And what does it mean to me today? As I began to probe I found out several things. First, and perhaps the most revealing, is that faith is a noun. You have faith, you don’t ‘do’ faith. Faith, in and of itself, is not an action or an event or anything at all taking place. The verb version of this word we use even more commonly than the noun. To believe. Quite simply, to have faith in something or someone you have to believe or trust it.
What I also found is that this can mean a whole lot of things. I looked to real life situations for insight. For example, for many years man has dreamt of flight but only in relatively recent history have we attained it. Years ago men would strap large apparatuses to there arms and legs in order to mimic the flight of birds. They honestly believed that if they were to simply flap hard enough they would lift up into the air. Their belief was reflected by their actions. Some were so certain, so trusting in these machines that they would jump off cliffs demonstrating their complete trust and belief. They really did believe their machines would work. As they came crashing down it became evident that their faith was misplaced. They believed something they thought was the truth but, as they soon discovered, was not.
I was recently helping run a climbing tower. Every time we had a group of people come in to use the climbing wall we explained all the safety precautions. We explained how the climbing tower was built around 4 steel reinforced hydro poles (massive cement pillars) that hardened for a full year before the rest of the construction began. The wood used in the construction was a high quality lumber not normally even available inside Canada. The tower was built one level at a time then given a year to settle. When the tower was finally completed after years of painstaking diligence engineers were asked to come examine it. After doing their various tests they exclaimed that the tower was over four times as strong as it was required to be. In fact they went as far as to say that if a hurricane like storm was to come through, even one as powerful as Hurricane Katrina, the climbing tower would be left undamaged. We then went on to explain that all the equipment that we would use was specifically designed for climbing. The rope we used had enough strength to pick up a small car or elephant (around 2000 pounds). We went on and on about the safety precautions we had gone to. The truth of the matter was, and still is, to climb that tower is safer than getting in a car and driving to work. The fact was the tower was completely safe. It was the climber’s choice whether to believe it or not. There were so many times that climbers would get 6 feet up the 40 foot tower and freeze. They did not have faith that the rope and the harnesses and all the other safety equipment would keep them from harm. Because of their unbelief they froze.
True faith is always followed with belief, a response. If you really believe you can fly with that pair of fake wings then you will give it a shot even though what you believe is not true(as you would soon find out). However, no matter how obvious a fact or truth is, it does not mean that we believe what is known to be true and as a result our lack of faith will be reflected by inaction.
Let me give you an example. I imagine most readers are, at this point, sitting on a chair or perhaps laying back on their sofa. Before you sat down did you examine the structural integrity of the object you were about to intrust your life with? Did you carefully examine each joint for cracks or any sign of weakness or fatigue? Perhaps you picked up the chair, if it was light enough, and slammed it down on the ground a few times to see if it could really take a beating? And maybe, just maybe, you carefully measured out your equivalent weight and eased it on the chair to see if the chair could really support your weight. Of course not! Your faith that the chair can support your weight is reflected by your action of belief to sit down in the chair.
So what does all this mean for me? This draws me to question what I have faith in. Is what I have faith in worthy of the honour? Is it truth? Can I sit back on it with confidence as you now sit in your chair? Or is it an unfounded belief? As I go to sit back on that proverbial chair will I find myself falling? Time to examine and test whether what I have faith in, what I believe to be true, is really true at all.
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