What is faith? Have you ever thought about the answer to this question?
Everyone is believing or has faith in something.
Here is my definition of faith. Faith is not just believing.
Faith is acting on what you believe.
Some people express their belief system for a wide range of things. People have faith in God, our country, the school system, their city, and even in their job.
In order for anyone to establish a point of faith there has to be a basis of truth.
It is at a point of truth that you and I decide how to act. Remember real faith is acting on what you believe. Say I believe that this community and economy is going to turn around. There has to be a basis of truth that allows me to believe this.
Some people believe in blind faith. It is as if somehow we mysteriously pull something from nothing. I believe the opposite. I believe faith is rooted in the truth, whether it is a stringed together series of documented facts or evidence; faith is never blind. It always has the light of truth leading it and you to a desired outcome.
Truth leads to faith and faith leads to corresponding action.
I sit down in a chair. I repeat this action over and over again. I have faith in the chair to support me. At some point I don’t need faith to sit down. At some point my action is based on knowledge and real life experience. The chair didn’t change. My experience with faith did. My action and behavior are now a result of tangible evidence.
I no longer need faith that the chair will hold me. I know the chair will hold me.
What happens if someone moves the chair or the chair breaks. I will need to rebuild my faith by establishing the truth to the point of being able to act on what I believe.
To make this less abstract, if someone promises you one-half million dollars, you take what they tell you as the truth. You proceed to look at a new home, new car and new businesses based on your faith in what they told you. This is your corresponding action. What if what they told you is a lie? In some instances it won’t change your faith, but it will change the outcome. You may continue to act on what you believe, but at some point the truth prohibits you from going any further.
Here we are in the midst of some of the most challenging times of our lives. Some of you have been here before. Others of you have not. Faith requires us to believe in something. My challenge is to have faith in the truth and allow my faith to continue to paint a picture of what our future will look like.
No matter how bad things may look, faith is acting on what you believe, not necessarily how things appear.
Jesse J. Wilkerson is the principal of a local firm. His column appears here every other Monday.
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