Everyone has faith

One reason that non-believers use to not be open-minded when it comes to reading or thinking about the God of the Bible is that "I don't have enough faith to believe in that God." I won't go into all the other objections in this post that people use to close their minds and reject God (which frankly I've found are based purely on emotion and ignorance rather than exhaustive research and fact - my life before God is a case in point!).

Instead, I propose the notion that everyone has faith whether they believe in God or not. In fact, every member of the human race - past, present, and future - has faith in many different people and things. Before I continue, let's look at one definition of faith: "complete trust or confidence in someone or something". In other words, to believe in God (or a god) requires more than belief, but a total trust or confidence in that god. Now let's apply this definition to the "something" category.

When you step into a car, you generally don't think twice about the hundreds of moving parts designed by imperfect beings that are about to propel you down the highway at 100 km/h. You step in and away you go, often without a second thought. You have faith in that car that it's going to get you to where you want safely and without incident. Your faith is even more evident when you let someone else drive, especially if you don't know them that well and more so if you decide to take a nap while (s)he is driving.

You might argue that this is a foolish argument for faith. Perhaps you're the type (sort of like me) who always has the thought in the back of your mind that the car could break down at any time, or that a tire could burst and you could sail off the road, or that some other driver could smash into you. But in nearly all these cases, don't you still get into that car and start driving?

People who put their faith in a "someone" like God often have a level of overall faith absolutely no different than even the most angry disbeliever and hater of God. The difference with believers is that they have simply put the bulk of their overall faith in God, although God actually wants us to put all our faith in Him (which is hard for even the most faithful of us imperfect beings to do!).

Frankly, when one starts to put out of their mind every stereotype and pre-conceived notion about God, it's much easier to believe in Him than anything or anyone else. And actually, most people don't have a problem with the idea of God, per se, but rather with those who claim to be His followers who have tainted the image of God; that is, it's even easier to accept and believe in God when one decides to ignore their experiences with such people. We've all heard too many stories of church leaders who've tried to look and act so godly on the outside - in front of an audience - but then resort to violence, robbery, and even rape behind the scenes. I'm sure they are what Jesus would call "modern-day Pharisees" in the worst sense.

Some of you at this point might now see the validity of my claim about everyone having faith, but you might now be thinking, "Well, it's easy to have faith in something I can see, touch, hear, taste, or smell. But it's different with God. I really can't believe in something I can't see and feel. I mean, I can't see the wind, but at least I can feel and experience it."

Oh boy - I think I've opened up a whole new can of worms! This is definitely a topic for another post. Stay tuned ...