Opinion : Pastor\'s Blog - What is Faith?

Some friends of mine are scared of heights. Any high elevation causes them some kind of mortal anxiety that results in super-human resistance for elevating hardware, particularly the aluminum kinds like extension ladders, elevators and airplanes. And, if looks could kill, I’d have been dead at least twice after I asked one of them to bring me my cordless drill atop my aluminum extension ladder. Nothing I could say or do would convince him he’d be safe. In jest, I offered to switch to a non-aluminum, wooden ladder, but was again blown away by his ‘evil-look-bazooka’ and STILL without my drill. Curiously, some other friends of mine demonstrate a reckless, ‘anti-scared-of-heights’ mentality that abandons all precaution in elevated places. And, instead of a fear of heights like the others, these friends seemed attracted to abnormally high distances from the ground as if they searching for gold atop Jack’s bean-stalk. I still haven’t figured them out. My only guess is that their mamas really DID do the ‘rock-a-by baby on the tree top’ thing and set their pack-and-plays in the tallest oaks of Vinton. What interests me about both sets of friends is their faith. The first seems not to have any at all, even when it was fully reasonable to exercise it upon strong, aluminum ladders. However, the second seemed to have too much, even when it was fully unreasonable to assume their own safety without the necessary fall protection gear. What interests me even more though is not faith in ladders or elevators, but faith in God. And so, I ask this question, “What is faith?” Is it simply the opposite of fear? Or, is it the knowledge or recognition of laws, principles or traditions? Or, is it more about trust or confidence? Or, is faith simply a religious system by which we choose to live? I think a good place to begin is the definition of faith. Here are two definitions from the New American Oxford Dictionary. Faith is: 1)...complete trust or confidence in someone or something. 2)...strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. There are, of course, several other definitions of faith, and some of them are good. And, since high-definition is in vogue, I’ll give an HD version later, but this one will do nicely for now. The dictionary says, “Faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” In other words, faith is one person trusting in something else, be it a personal or impersonal object. It then seems rather obvious that everyone must have some kind of faith, some kind of trust or confidence in something. Think about it: whenever you sit on a chair, climb stairs, ride in a truck, drink tea or coffee, lie on your bed, operate machinery, play baseball, turn on your oven, start your lawn mower, or the thousands of other things we do every day, we have ‘trust or confidence in someone or something‘ all the time, even when we don’t realize it. Sure, you may not think twice about sitting down on your dining room chair, but that doesn’t mean you have no faith in it. If you had no faith it it, you would certainly have some reason to doubt that it would hold you up, such as a missing or broken leg. Or, when you’re playing baseball out in center-field and someone hits a screamer into left field, you don’t interfere with the left fielder so as to catch the ball yourself, but you let the left fielder catch the ball because you have faith he will catch it. Just because you don’t think about it doesn’t mean you don’t have faith. So, everyone has faith, some kind of trust or confidence in someone or something. Sometimes, faith appears to be missing altogether. Let’s use my friends for example. Those who are scared of heights seem not to have any faith in elevating hardware, especially the aluminum kind. The truth is, they don’t simply lack faith- they really do have faith, but it’s faith only in solid ground, not ladders. Those who love heights and climb in lofty places don’t simply lack faith in fall-protection gear- they really do have faith and it’s in their own skill at climbing or it is faith that climbing without safety equipment is a safe thing to do. In either case, both express faith in someone or something, no matter whether we perceive they do or not, and no matter whether they themselves perceive it or not. Since I’m most interested in faith in God, we must advance a step further. Most, if not all people, have some kind of faith or trust in God or a god, whether they know it or not. If they don’t know or perceive they have faith in God, it’s not simply that they lack faith, or even have zero faith in God or a god. Rather, it’s that they do have faith in someone or something else. There are only two ways to express faith in God: “I believe / trust in God” or “I believe / trust in someone or something else other than God.” But, someone might oppose faith in God by saying, “I don’t have faith in God” or “God doesn’t or probably doesn’t exist.” But what they are really saying is this: “I believe in someone or something other than God,” for, everyone has faith in God or a god and, God certainly does exist, whether we have faith He does or not. So, we know that everyone has faith in God or a god, and that not having faith in him doesn’t mean we have no faith or that he doesn’t exist. Let me put it another way. Saying, “I don’t have faith in ladders” might be reasonable if the ladder I was using was broken. My lack of faith in broken ladders means I trust in something other than broken ladders to reach elevated places. My lack of faith in these ladders doesn’t mean that I have no faith or that I deny that strong, sturdy aluminum ladders do exist and can be trusted. Saying “I don’t have faith in ladders” or “Ladders don’t or probably don’t exist” doesn’t change the fact that they do exist and people use the normal aluminum kinds all the time, believing they will support their weight. Yes, everyone has faith in ladders or something else that will support their weight in high places. So it it with faith in God. Most, if not all people, have some kind of faith or trust in God or a god, whether they know it or not, or whether they deny it or not. Neither their perception or misperception nor their denial or affirmation of God changes that they have faith in God or a god and that he exists. I hope at least four things are evident so far: 1) faith is a trust or confidence in someone or something. 2) Faith in God is a trust or confidence in God or a god of some sort. 3) Everyone has some kind of faith in God or a god whether they perceive they do or not. 4) Someone who denies they have faith in God simply means they have faith in someone or something else, not that they lack faith altogether or that God or a god do not exist. The question I will ask next time is this: Is it reasonable to have faith in God? --- Zach Zajicek is the pastor at: First Baptist Church 601 1st Ave, Vinton, IA