Is Understanding Necessary to Have Faith?
I recently flew on an airplane to visit my family. As we taxied and became airborne, I realized I had no control over this aircraft. I don’t even understand how it flies! Yet, I have faith that the pilot is fully licensed and experienced to get his or her passengers to the destination safely. I have faith in someone I do not know nor have seen. I also have faith the aircraft has undergone the appropriate safety checks to be viable and safe for flight. While somewhat anxious, I do trust in these factors to bring me to my destination regardless of my understanding the process.
Likewise, I have faith in my car and its ability to transport me safely. I have faith that my body will arouse me each morning and let me know its needs. I have faith that oxygen is available for my life source and that my heart will continue to beat. Most of the time, I do not give these things a second thought. Surely, there are times of malfunction, but there are usually warning signals. And I trust these too. I do not fully understand how these things function, yet I trust them to live my life.
Proof for Faith
Whether we have little education or are a scholar, no one fully comprehends all of life’s surroundings nor how our bodies function. Through study we may have expertise in part, but never the entire picture. And yet, we trust. Why? Why would we trust anything without full understanding? Perhaps it is simply how we’re designed or perhaps it is because these things have proven themselves to be true a large percentage of the time. My lungs and heart have proven themselves to be trustworthy most of the time. The multiple flights I have taken over the years have proven trustworthy and my car has proven itself sound most of the time. I guess this gives me confidence in my surroundings. Therefore, I have faith in creation – that the sun will shine, the wind will blow and life continues to thrive (yes, even through sometimes difficult times).
Study for Faith
There is a whole theological discipline called apologetics dedicated to the defense of the Christian worldview. While study is important to understand how 66 books of the Bible can compile over centuries and still be relevant and support one another, the faith component becomes more significant than the understanding. God plainly states that His ways are not our ways. We must accept that we will not fully comprehend His ways or why things happen as they do. We just have faith.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
God’s statement should give us comfort. We do not have to fully comprehend in order to trust or have faith. We can accept it with confidence.
Before the Throne
One day, when we leave this earth, we will stand before the throne and give account for our earthly lives and decisions. We are flawed, but He understands and loves us with a love so much higher than we can comprehend. This, too, should give us assurance if we trust in Him. And, if we trust in Him, our Creator, Jesus the Christ, we will be filled with great humility.
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ IS Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-10).
I cannot comprehend all that surrounds me or how things work, but because of God, I have faith until the day all my questions are answered in glory.
Tonya Noren
August 4, 2022