Oxygen, Gravity, Faith – Unseen Yet Dependable

“Faith is not something we do. It’s something we trust just like oxygen and gravity, unseen and dependable.”

— Ron Wilbur

QUOTES like the above I wrestle with. Like being slapped across the face with a heavy wet fish, the wisdom grips my awareness and won’t let go, yet I struggle with how it reads. I think the best wisdom quotes have these features – the implicitness of wrestling, in order that we might glean from them their true meaning. Of course, ‘true meaning’ is relative and God may have an infinite body of wisdom that underlies such a concept presented in these eighteen words.

Of course, we wouldn’t argue with the first sentence – faith isn’t what we do, yet we do, somehow, express faith. Like there is evidence of oxygen – the health of a biological cell as it subsists on its lifeblood – and for gravity – that the seas stay in place as Earth spins on its axis at terrible speed – there is evidence of faith: the trust plied in real life situations that puts forth a person’s virtue: patience, courage, humility – against the odds.

Faith isn’t something like a task. It’s more implicit in our modus operandi.

Faith – The Noun

We know faith as a verb, like love. In this way it is an expression – something observable – as I’ve mentioned.

Yet, faith is also something that simply is. It’s identifiable in its own right, for many times what is observable just exists. There’s nothing more noteworthy than that, but its inherent noteworthiness is in its being. We, as persons, don’t need to do anything to prove that we are living, breathing people – we are. We exist.

So it is with faith. Ever cast forth into the world, from some discrete moment in the order of divine creation, faith has been a thing available for us, like oxygen and gravity. Eve had her opportunity. So did Adam. So do we.

Faith is a belief in the Word of God – which is possibly a thought extending past the Holy Bible. It’s more generic. Faith takes God at his Word as it has been spoken into creation by the laws that, when tested, subsist the good majority of the time – or all the time.

Faith, like bread, is something we choose to partake of or not. Indeed, we are all plying some form of faith every day... every moment. The atheist, it’s often said, has abundantly more faith, for who would dare believe there is no God?

We are to put our faith in the right things – or, more appropriately, God.

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Ever cast forth into the world, from some discrete moment in order of divine creation, faith has been a thing available for us, like oxygen and gravity. Eve had her opportunity. So did Adam. So do we. What will we do with faith? Will we put our faith in the Word, the wisdom, and the will of God?

Faith is a challenge. We either will or we won’t – place our faith in the invisible hope. Faith rewards the faithful. The faithful ply faith – good faith.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.