Living by Faith

It is hard to figure why some folks seem to have so much trouble with religious people talking about the importance of living by faith.  Their expression looks something like, "Get real!"  The truth is we all live by faith.  Such is true of the religious, the atheist, the agnostic, and everyone in between and on the edges.  Whenever we enter an airplane for some cross country trip, very few of us see the pilot up front.  We may hear his voice, but it could be a recording and he is not really flying the plane.  Faith says differently.  Of course, the pilot has faith that the ground crew has done their work.    

At a different level is the faith we exercise when we put ourselves out there on some four lanes of expressway with everyone driving 70mph or more.  We have faith all those people will abide by driving laws, stay in their lanes, be watching out for us as much as we are watching out for them.  Faith permeates our society.  We trust unseen people to prepare our food in restaurants, our surgeon instead of the assistant to be at the table when we are having surgery, and our friends to be there for us when we need them.   Why should anyone look with disbelief when they encounter someone talking about believing in an unseen God?  

We all exercise faith in the unseen ones around us.  Such faith is built into the fabric of an orderly society.  It does not seem irrational to have faith in God.  Actually, it makes sense.  Everywhere I look there is evidence that coincidence and chance could not create what I see all around me.  Every single part of the created order speaks of purpose.  It is a purpose we affirm every Sunday as we pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Every day the purpose of the God we know by faith edges closer.