Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Faith is a great thing, right? It lets us be optimistic, in the face of no evidence. It allows us to be calm, in the midst of a storm. It lets us have certitude, when we really ought not. It gives us conviction of things not seen.
Or is it just a break from the reality of the challenges of this life? Is it delusional hopes?
I had a friend who’d ‘found religion’ as an adult. They were totally immersed in an orthodox religion, baptized and married in the faith within a year. Children baptized into that community shortly after. However, after a series of tragedies – the death of a parent, and tragic death of a friend – their faith fled. They could not believe in a God who’d let all of these horrible things happen. And as quickly as it had been found, their religion was lost.
I don’t know what to say about their loss of faith, or about their sense of betrayal of things hoped for. I can say that they were happier and more content when they had something they believed in. When their faith disappeared, a sense of despair and hopelessness crept in. Maybe they felt they were living more genuinely or more realistically. It looked to me like they were living less.
I cannot know about the presence of God, any more than my friend can know about the absence of God. But I absolutely have faith that there is a larger arc to humanity in general, or my life in particular. Some of this is a matter of choice; if I have the capacity to choose, I’ll choose life and love, rather than hopelessness. And I fully acknowledge that the capacity to choose is a gift, that it’s not something I can solely conjure.
This morning, I’m thinking about the gift of faith, and the choice of faith. It’s like Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Thank God for faith.
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