I've noticed over the period of a few months the word faith has been popping in and out of conversations with others and also within my own thoughts. Some of those interactions have been over the topic of what faith is, having faith, and gaining/losing faith. Through mulling around those conversations I believe that the word faith has lost its meaning within our current cultures.
Lets examine what faith is. From a biblical perspective you can take the passage in Hebrews 11 which states in verse 1 (NIV) "Now Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." So looking at this at the surface, faith is comprised of these two things. I don't know about you, but I often find myself doing the first thing, but not the second. I have faith that I will pass my test- I am confident that I hope to pass; however do I have assurance in what I cannot see? Or rather, the real question is do I even consider the things that I do not see? I can consider the things that are on the test, but do I take into account all the things I cannot prepare for? Of course this example isn't a very good one, but having assurance in what we do not see I think is extremely hard. I think in our culture we are very well bent on having certainties. We want to know what is on the test, the format, etc., and holding onto that knowledge pass. Essentially we are putting our assurance in what we do know, rather than what we don't know. Isn't that opposite?
My inspiration behind this post was the story of the Centurion in Luke 7 Verses 1-9. It's the story of this Centurion who has a trusted servant that is sick. He hears about Jesus who performs miracles and healings, and he wants Jesus to heal his servant. The Centurion some elders of the Jews to ask Jesus to come over to his house, and then later greeted Jesus with his servants. With his servants he leaves a message to Jesus with them stating that his house is not worthy for Jesus to come inside and that he is not even worthy to meet with Jesus, but say the word and you can heal the servant. Jesus was taken aback by his faith, even turning and addressing the crowd following him of the Centurion's faith.
So lets take a look at faith within this story. The Centurion wanted his servant to be healed, that is the goal. He hears about Jesus and wants him to heal his servant. The first point here is that he believes that Jesus is able to heal people. So he is now putting his confidence that Jesus can heal his servant. Next after Jesus is led close to his house, he greets Jesus with his servants saying his house is not worthy of him to enter nor is he himself worthy enough to meet with Jesus. So I don't know about you, but this Centurion- a high ranking officer hears about some dude on the streets that can heal people and completely utterly and fully believes that Jesus is a man that deserves to be treated like a King, whom the Centurion hasn't even met in the flesh. And this Centurion is putting his entire confidence that Jesus can heal his servant, so much to the point that he tells his servants to tell Jesus that if he commands it then the servant will be healed. The Centurion will be not be present during the healing, Jesus will not be present during the healing yet this guy is wholly trusting in Jesus to heal his servant. Afterwards, it stated that Jesus was amazed at him. This man did not need any proof. He had confidence that Jesus would heal, and assurance about what he would not see.
Though my whole point is this: is that what faith should be/ is? Or is there something more? I love this story and model of faith because it's something that I wish I had. I worry about what might happen and am never really secure in what I'm not certain about. Perhaps that may be the teaching of taking precautions, or being careful? So then, where is the line between taking precautions and having faith? That is a question, I have not yet answered or thought about. Though I believe that faith is shown in this bible passage, but only a portion of it. For some weird reason, I feel that faith is so much more....and much more mysterious than I can ever fathom. I mean, can we truly put our trust in something we cannot understand or see? And if we do, why do we have periods where we lack faith-if we can put our trust in what we don't understand/see how do we lose it if it's something that has to be so concrete in the first place? I'm not sure where to begin, or even how to answer these questions, though I don't think there is a "right" answer but many answers. I'm not sure, though lets truly tackle these questions which I think are so core to our culture and especially what we believe in.
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