Why is Faith Important?

'Faith is following without knowing where, waiting without knowing when

, believing without knowing how, trusting without knowing why' Rick Warren

I don't know about you, but I find that statement really tough. I like to know where I'm going, when I will get there, how it's going to happen and why I'm going in the first place.

I think a lot of people are like that. I guess that's why a lot of people read horoscopes. Then they can say 'I am a Gemini, that's why I am like this' or they can feel safe in knowing what the month is going to hold for them according to their stars.

Knowing where we are going. Maybe that's why we stick to old, familiar ways of doing things rather than taking courage in both hands and ditching a behaviour or situation that we know is past it's sell by date. Maybe that's why we tend to worry so much, or be afraid of tomorrow. Because it is unknown. Maybe that's why we need to control our relationships or protect ourselves from intimacy. We believe we are safer when we are in control.

Our culture has an unshakeable belief in the value of knowledge. Knowledge is what gets you ahead at work, it's what makes you stand out in a crowd, it's what makes you interesting at parties and it's what keeps you sane. Our magazines, newspapers and television programmes spoon feed us information about what we should be doing, who we should admire, how we should dress, how we should feel.

So does all this knowledge make us happy? Why do we always seem to need more? When is enough, enough? The answer is never. We will always need to stay ahead of the game, stand out from the crowd and be interesting enough to count. Isn't that what life is all about?

Is it any surprise that in a culture like this, people have such a hard time with God. If we feel safer in control of our own destiny - protecting ourselves from intimacy and uncertainty, if it is all about us - why would we need God? Having spent 43 years in this culture, I have to say that I do not see all this self-knowledge, self-control and self-love making us any happier, or more peaceful.

Eventually, I decided to follow without knowing where, wait without knowing when, believe without knowing how and trust without knowing why. Some days it takes effort because it feels like I am swimming against an enormous current flowing the other way. Some days it is hard because everything inside of me wants to be in control.

But if explorers had never gone to the edge of the earth, choosing uncertainty against the better judgement of those who told them they should not go, they would never have found new land. Sometimes the knowledge we hold so tightly in our hands can stop them from being held.

'God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.' 1John4 v16b, NIV

He believes in you! :)

Why is Faith Important?

By: Claire Vorster

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