Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Eyes Have It. Or Not.

My previous post started out to be this one but got side tracked.

I'm doing a group study called "Believing God" which obviously deals with the issue of faith.
And faith is a dimension which involves living by a knowledge that is higher than the senses
Kind of beyond them.
It is mysterious, and fascinating and intriguing
Prone to be misunderstood and worse, manipulated
But is so vital to the Christian life that it has to be addressed - and with a childlike attitude
Because I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, I need illustrations from ordinary life to help me get a grip on things like this.
This time I got it in the form of horizons


A horizon looks like the edge of the world - in fact for ages people believed the earth was flat and that you'd fall off the edge if you went past the horizon.
But I know I won't fall off if I go past it.
"Why is that?" I ask myself
"Because I know something other than what my eyes tell me" is my answer
"Knowledge that overrides what my eyes tell me."

Sometimes that other knowledge might come from believing what someone else tells me
Sometimes it might involve my actually having to 'go there' -
Same thing with faith: I may believe the words of some one else
Or I may have to 'go there' for myself.

These comparisons give me a window into faith
In its infancy maybe, but a window . .
Jesus says "I am the truth"
His Spirit is called "The Spirit of truth"
"Jesus says to God "Your word is truth"

Is He making this same point?
Maybe the way we see things is one thing
And what He says about them is entirely another?

Maybe the question is: who or what will we choose to believe . . .
Eyes (horizon edge)? or faith (unlimited vistas)?

1 comment:

ANNE said...

good analogy!