I have friends who are atheists, fundamentalists, jewish, christian, uncertain, and everything else along the spiritual spectrum. Yet, they all share one thing in common: they all have faith in something. Not always faith in "someone" but always faith in something.
They have faith that something or someone will usher in a better world, a better life, a better existence, than the one they are currently experiencing. Not all of them feel this current experience is all that bad (although none would say it is amazing or perfect either), but they would all say in one way or another, "things have to be getting better if we are going to survive."
In essence they are, like me, searching for something more; something better.
They, like me, have faith that there is something more, something better, some better life or world or existence to experience.
We all have it. We have faith that either more money, more kindness, more love, more of Jesus, more of human reason, more faithful observance of Torah, more of Islam, more meditation, more exercise, more relationships, more sex, more freedom, or more of something I haven't listed, will bring us closer to some ideal existence we envision and dream of and long for and hope for.
So, faith is believing that something we haven't yet seen or experienced fully is regardless of our lack of first hand knowledge or experience of said something, still real. Some might say because we haven't actually experienced this perfect existence, it is therefore not "real" but is instead "potentially real." Then again, for those who have experienced true love or an act of unselfish kindness, who have found in their meditation a connection with something deeper or who have found a small level of comfort in their observance of Torah or belief in Jesus, for these people, they might say that they have experienced in some small way a taste of what they have faith in, and through that small experience they then extrapolate what a world full of that experience could be like. In the end, regardless of whether or not they have or have not experienced any part of what they have faith in, they are still admitting that they have faith in something. They want to have faith that there is a bigger or better existence out there and they wish to be part of it.
Perhaps we could see them as Obi Wan saw Luke Skywalker the first time Luke experienced the Force aboard the Millennium Falcon. We might even relate to Luke as he hears Obi Wan say " you have taken your first steps into a larger world." For others, we might understand how they relate to Bono when he sings, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."
While I believe that most people have faith in something, there are those who do not. How sad for those who have no faith, no hope, no desire for a better world, who are content with the life they have and the lack of any hope of a better future. For these people (and they do exist by the millions) this is all there is. Life is all about luck and chance and meaningless experience after meaningless experience. When life is hard there is nothing to look forward to, no future to envision where anything will ever get better. In point of fact, "better" probably does not even factor into their thoughts on life or living, if and when they ever stop to ponder their lives. When life is good there is no emotion that says, "this is the first step towards that better world" - whatever that world might be. They are even worse off than the atheist. At least the atheist can say that even if life doesn't get better during his personal life time, over time in some future generation, human reason and intelligence will lead us to a better existence and will build a better world for our children and their children. This is at least faith. For those without faith, when they die, that is it. There is nothing more for them (obviously) or for their children. They leave this world exactly as they found it.
This could easily turn into a philosophy paper so I'll simply wrap it up by saying this:
In order for life to have any meaning it has to have faith. Even if it is as simple as having faith that your kids will live a better life because of you or perhaps will at least live a better life by not repeating your mistakes, even that is a type of faith. Personally however, my faith is something bigger, something deeper, something that is far beyond my power to influence or control.
The most important part of my life is my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I don't say this to be preachy or superior or judgmental of anyone else. I say this only as a statement of my life and of what is most important in my life. I have faith that only He can make this world perfect. I have faith that only He can show us how to love fully, to respect each other deeply, to treat each other with eternal kindness, and to work for the good of everyone, not just of those who we like. I have faith that even as this world becomes more and more violent, more and more selfish, more and more overheated, more and more crowded, He is preparing a new heaven and new earth, and that someday heaven will come fully to earth, even as we experience bits and pieces of it now in acts of love and kindness and in moments of hope.
And so, my faith encourages me to try to make the world around me a little more like the world I have faith in - the world that I believe is coming. Yet even as I attempt to do this in my relationships and words and actions, I fail miserably. I am not always kind or loving. I get angry, I am tempted to hate, to fear, to withdraw from people and places who aren't like me. And this is why I know that ultimately any true hope I have for a better world has to come from outside of me and has to be based on someone better than any one of us humans can possibly be. And so, rather than putting my faith in other flawed humans or in systems that require human behavior in order to accomplish their goals, I have faith in Jesus Christ who says that He and He alone can make all things new and bring beauty to ugliness and perfection to imperfection.
I know the depths of human depravity, I've seen what power can do to people, and so I choose to put my faith in the power and promises of Jesus Christ. A coming Savior who is out of this world and yet intimately connected to this world; a Savior that will not corrupt, will not change, will not fail me, will follow through on His promises, who won't give up on me when I fail, who can't be corrupted or tempted to leave me for something or someone better or because he got a better offer, but instead offered himself as a sacrifice to heal the nations. That is who I have faith in and it is my faith in Him that gets me through each day.
