Faith
Faith.  It is a simple thing, yet powerful.  It is so common, yet so hard to describe.  It comes in a dozen varieties, yet it always seems to be the same.  Faith.  What a wonderful thing.  Everyone has heard of ‘child-like’ faith.  But what is the faith of a child?  When an injured child runs to its mother expecting her to make the pain go away, is that faith?  Most people would say ‘yes’.  But why, then, is the child’s faith not shattered when she fails?  Not all pains can be dismissed by a kiss and a band-aid.  It would seem that faith is a trust in an action, not a result.

Faith is common to all aspects of life.  It is seen so often it has become invisible.  People show faith in their car’s ability to get them where they want to go.  They show faith in the roof’s ability to keep out the rain.  They even show faith in a chair’s ability to support their weight.  These abilities cannot be proven until they succeed or fail, yet people blindly trust them without even a thought.  Rarely do people actually stop and consider the chances of these things failing.  Faith, then, does not seem to be a conscious act, but a habit.

Faith seems to inspire courage.  It has lead people to face certain death, and it also seems to have given them the power to survive.  Firemen walk into burning buildings with the faith that their suits will protect them.  Soldiers fight wars because of their faith in a cause.  Certain religions defy societal norms because of their faith in their principles.  All of this is done with little to gain, and much to lose.  Rarely are there any tangible rewards, yet each act makes the faith stronger.  So faith is a driving force, leading people to irrational yet powerful action.

People seem to hold the most faith in their ideals.  There is faith in justice and love.  There is faith in a better tomorrow, and faith in human goodness.  There is faith in God.  Who, though, has faith in rocks, or water?  Who really even has faith in money?  All those things we can see, touch, and control, we distrust.  Faith is held in more etherial things.  Thus, faith is not dependant on any material, but is sustained by a force that cannot be seen or touched.

So, faith is a force which leads people to trust in things which they cannot see and may not necessarily be true.  It is self-sustaining and self-motivating.  It is as much a habit as breathing, and its influence can be seen in practically every action we take.

Then why is faith so hard to truly define?  Why can we not see it when it is so obvious?  Perhaps because it is too obvious.  Man seems to take notice of faith only in those areas where it is most blatant, like when hostages held at gunpoint pray to show their faith and ask for help.  And the times that faith is most blatant also seem to be the times when it is weakest.  Those same
hostages, faced with the very real possibility of dying any minute, are begining to doubt their faith.  It has already begun to flounder, and their prayers are a desperate attempt to hold on to it.

Strong faith asks nothing, because it questions nothing.  It does not wonder if something will happen, or ask for something to happen, or even think something will happen.  It simply knows.  That is all there is to it.  It is as if the event had already taken place and the results witnessed.  There is no uncertainty, no doubt of any kind, just a calm certainty.  That sort of faith is
unshakable.  I pray I may have such faith.