What is Faith
6 years 8 months ago #580
by Wescli Wardest
What is Faith was created by Wescli Wardest
I am often asked about faith. Not what my faith is but what is faith itself.
Okay...
In itself, this is a simple and difficult concept to understand. Simple in its description. Difficult in the actual understanding of it. The definition, as given to us by Webster is: complete trust in someone or something; strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehensions rather than proof. So what does that mean exactly? Well, if it were easy, we would all have a complete understanding of faith from the definition. But, knowing the definition does not mean understanding. So rather than bore you with long, drawn out definitions referencing things most either don’t know about or care about, let’s go with a story form example.
Man has dreamed about flying since he first looked up and saw the birds. The seemingly impossible nature of creating this reality led most to believe that if we were meant to fly we would have been born with wings.
Does this mean that striving to fly is having faith that we were going to one day fly?
No, not really, just wait for me to finish…
So individual’s tried to fly by mimicking what they saw in birds. And they did not fly. And then some tried to create simple machines to do the trick. But even da Vinci had success in this endeavor elude him. It wasn’t till Newton and Bernoulli that the principle required to create the needed lift to get a body off the ground in sustained flight was realized. After that, people tried several times to accomplish this amazing thing.
So, they had a working theory and a belief so that is faith?
Still no, not really. LOL We’re getting there
Previously in history, when people strapped “flapping” wings on to their backs and tried to fly that was pretty much just blind hope. They saw something, wanted to do it and imitated what they saw with no understanding of it, the thing or the reason. Later there was a basic theoretical understanding and a desire to do something.
It wasn’t until the first guy that believed he could do it, understood the theory and climbed into the aircraft that he discovered his faith in what he was about to do. He studied, researched and trusted in what he had learned. His life was literally on the line and his faith in what he believed he knew, cause it hadn’t been proven yet, was about to be tested. Would he go through with it? Would he stay on the flying contraption? Would it work?
Study, belief, work, trust… he had faith that the machine would fly. And his faith was rewarded.
People throw around words and change the meanings to suit what they want seemingly all the time these days.
Faith without understanding which comes from study and work is really nothing more than hope. Understanding but and not doing anything with it is just holding a belief. You have to understand what it is you believe and trust it to work within your life… that is how I see faith.
Okay...
In itself, this is a simple and difficult concept to understand. Simple in its description. Difficult in the actual understanding of it. The definition, as given to us by Webster is: complete trust in someone or something; strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehensions rather than proof. So what does that mean exactly? Well, if it were easy, we would all have a complete understanding of faith from the definition. But, knowing the definition does not mean understanding. So rather than bore you with long, drawn out definitions referencing things most either don’t know about or care about, let’s go with a story form example.
Man has dreamed about flying since he first looked up and saw the birds. The seemingly impossible nature of creating this reality led most to believe that if we were meant to fly we would have been born with wings.
Does this mean that striving to fly is having faith that we were going to one day fly?
No, not really, just wait for me to finish…
So individual’s tried to fly by mimicking what they saw in birds. And they did not fly. And then some tried to create simple machines to do the trick. But even da Vinci had success in this endeavor elude him. It wasn’t till Newton and Bernoulli that the principle required to create the needed lift to get a body off the ground in sustained flight was realized. After that, people tried several times to accomplish this amazing thing.
So, they had a working theory and a belief so that is faith?
Still no, not really. LOL We’re getting there
Previously in history, when people strapped “flapping” wings on to their backs and tried to fly that was pretty much just blind hope. They saw something, wanted to do it and imitated what they saw with no understanding of it, the thing or the reason. Later there was a basic theoretical understanding and a desire to do something.
It wasn’t until the first guy that believed he could do it, understood the theory and climbed into the aircraft that he discovered his faith in what he was about to do. He studied, researched and trusted in what he had learned. His life was literally on the line and his faith in what he believed he knew, cause it hadn’t been proven yet, was about to be tested. Would he go through with it? Would he stay on the flying contraption? Would it work?
Study, belief, work, trust… he had faith that the machine would fly. And his faith was rewarded.
People throw around words and change the meanings to suit what they want seemingly all the time these days.
Faith without understanding which comes from study and work is really nothing more than hope. Understanding but and not doing anything with it is just holding a belief. You have to understand what it is you believe and trust it to work within your life… that is how I see faith. Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
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The muse is upon me... 
*gasp* get it off, get it off! 
