Have Faith

And Another Thing!

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So begins Hebrews 11, probably the most famous ch

apter in that book.

We discussed faith in the Sunday School class I visited yesterday. The definition that AI supplied us with leaned heavily on religious faith as being a belief in the doctrines of one’s religion. There’s some truth to believing in the concepts, but I think there’s also more to it.

Faith is a living concept, a belief not just in something we cannot see, but in the people and systems in which we live our lives. We believe that the school bus will come because we have faith in the school district to send it. We believe that our spouse or partner will stay faithful to us because we believe in them and their honesty. We believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead because of the witness of the early church, because of the faith of the people around us, and because of our faith in Jesus as our God.

We have faith in statements, sure. We believe that the sun will rise tomorrow, and that one plus one equals two. We believe that Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life, because the Bible says so. Along with that, we believe that Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life because we have faith in Jesus. We walk this life alongside Jesus and we see the ways our world is better because of it.

Sometimes, our faith shifts and changes. Some days, it’s harder to believe that God answers prayers or that miracles happen. When that shift happens in our hearts, we lean on the people around us. We have faith in their faith. We lean on Jesus, too. We may not understand what’s going on, but we know who is in charge of it. We can have faith in the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Mary and Joseph, and the God of our ancestors, neighbors, and friends.