You gotta have faith....

“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.” - Rabindranath Tagore

At some point I know that certain things are proven to be true. People are born, and people will die. Life here on our spinning blue ball continues to evolve and as we progress, it is in faith that we believe things will happen. Still our faith is challenged when things don't happen the way they are supposed to. How many of us become irritated when a light doesn't go on when we flick a switch? How many of us expect our cars to start every day? How many would be surprised if we walked into a grocery store to find that they didn't have any food? Our world is built on faith that things happen when we expect them to. Most of these things are easily explained.

We know that (or we hope that) if we pay our electricity bill, the electric company will continue to supply us with service, and when we come home at night and turn on a light, it should come on. Certainly bulbs will blow, fuses or breakers will blow or trip, but for the most part we have faith in the system. Just as we expect the grocery store to provide the food we want when we are hungry. In this instance we do not say that we have blind faith, we have proven faith.

We can have faith in our governments to do the best thing for us, but that faith is continually challenged when they do boneheaded things. To err is human... Still, most of us believe in the power of love, and to that end we have hope for the future. A lot of things reinforce that faith, that love, that hope for the future. Friendship, family, security and the basic idea that man is inherently good and that we truly care for everyone and everything around us. Faith is the key to human existence. Unfortunately this is where things become... muddled.

We have faith, faith in people, places and things, all things that we can prove exist, but when we all of a sudden have faith in things that can't be proven to exist, I begin to worry a bit about our future. I guess the point here is what I'll call the "GOD PROBLEM". For as long as can be known, people have had this ... problem. The problem is, that unlike the "electricity" problem, that can be resolved by paying the bill, changing the bulb or fuse, flipping the breaker, the God thing isn't so easily fixed. It isn't easily proven. The bible tells us that there are certain things we can do to ensure a place in heaven, but that heaven place, did someone get an address or phone number? I know DisneyWorld exists, and it may be the coolest place on earth, because I've been there ... a few times. I know outer space exists, because I can see the stars in the sky and I can see the facts laid before me by people who have been there. It's like Antarctica... I've never been there, but I have reasonable faith that it exists, because if I look hard enough I'll find someone who has been there.

The God/Heaven thing hasn't been proven yet people are willing to die for their faith. I'm just not getting it. I've been an altar boy, joined Young Life, studied with Christians, Mormons, Jehovas... and their story is all the same. An undisputed belief in a god or heaven that can not be verified. It's a feel good thing. People need to feel good and they need to believe that there is something good after you die. We know that every year after Christmas, there are post-christmas sales, but I have never met anyone that's had a post-life experience. We have to be careful. I understand the NEED to have FAITH, I'd just like it to be verifiable. I'm just not sworn to it. Give me something... anything. Give me a plug, a bulb, a power cord, an electric company, something tangible, something verifiable.

In the end, I guess it's a double edged sword. I believe in Christmas, Easter, if not for the social aspects of these holidays, so is it wrong for me to deny the existence of the one who makes those days important? Believe me, I want those holidays, so I know that it should be something important to me. Unfortunately it's not. If I lived in a society that told me I had to work those days, I'm sure it would mean even less to me. The one thing I will continue to have faith in, is man. One way or another I have faith that I will be surprised, shocked, amazed and horrified by what he can do. I only hope that faith is not the only thing carrying me through it all.