Believing is Seeing
I’m becoming more and more convinced that believing is seeing, especially in the realm of faith.
In today’s “empirically proven” world (which I greatly appreciate), I think we have put to the test realms that do no qualify for such testing, like faith.
All too often, I hear people trying to prove God’s existence so that others might believe. Now, I think that we should apply our minds and consider the evidence, but I’m fairly sure that is not a prerequisite to faith for most individuals. In other words, I don’t think it is accurate to say that seeing is believing.
Perhaps the evidence is pretty clear in the first place, but people don’t see what is right in front of their noses because they don’t believe. Seeing isn’t enough.
How many people walked in the footsteps of the Nazarene, watched the miracles, witnessed his death, and witnessed his resurrection? How many saw and did not believe?
Consider his words, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The Nazarene inspired belief by taking himself into their midst, re-initiating the relationship. What is necessary is working with people to help them deal with whatever is getting in the way of seeing reality, whatever is getting in the way of the most significant relationship in their life.
For example, imagine a person locked in a dark room with their eyes shut. Now, I could talk to that person about the outside world, all there is to see, and I could work through the latest research to prove the existence of the outside world to the person.
The world is waiting for the person, but the person has to choose to open his eyes and walk out of the dark room. In essence, faith/belief will precede his seeing the world. I think my work is to help others move into an area of life where they are more likely to utilize their faith.
If belief is the window for seeing what is real, does this mean that we can believe anything and see anything? Does it mean that if we believe something, then it is necessarily true?
Not at all. If, for example, I choose to believe that my Moleskine journal will give me unlimited satisfaction, that it’s the only thing I need in life, that it’s the true key to happiness, I would soon find out that my belief was inaccurate and that which I wished to see I could not see because it does not exist in the realm of reality.
Belief then becomes a sort of test of reality. Go ahead, test God with your belief :). Or test whatever it is you’re interested in right now.
The balance is being honest enough with ourselves to let go of beliefs when they’re clearly not in alignment with reality, not healthy for others, or not healthy for ourselves.
In today’s “empirically proven” world (which I greatly appreciate), I think we have put to the test realms that do no qualify for such testing, like faith.
All too often, I hear people trying to prove God’s existence so that others might believe. Now, I think that we should apply our minds and consider the evidence, but I’m fairly sure that is not a prerequisite to faith for most individuals. In other words, I don’t think it is accurate to say that seeing is believing.
Perhaps the evidence is pretty clear in the first place, but people don’t see what is right in front of their noses because they don’t believe. Seeing isn’t enough.
How many people walked in the footsteps of the Nazarene, watched the miracles, witnessed his death, and witnessed his resurrection? How many saw and did not believe?
Consider his words, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The Nazarene inspired belief by taking himself into their midst, re-initiating the relationship. What is necessary is working with people to help them deal with whatever is getting in the way of seeing reality, whatever is getting in the way of the most significant relationship in their life.
For example, imagine a person locked in a dark room with their eyes shut. Now, I could talk to that person about the outside world, all there is to see, and I could work through the latest research to prove the existence of the outside world to the person.
The world is waiting for the person, but the person has to choose to open his eyes and walk out of the dark room. In essence, faith/belief will precede his seeing the world. I think my work is to help others move into an area of life where they are more likely to utilize their faith.
If belief is the window for seeing what is real, does this mean that we can believe anything and see anything? Does it mean that if we believe something, then it is necessarily true?
Not at all. If, for example, I choose to believe that my Moleskine journal will give me unlimited satisfaction, that it’s the only thing I need in life, that it’s the true key to happiness, I would soon find out that my belief was inaccurate and that which I wished to see I could not see because it does not exist in the realm of reality.
Belief then becomes a sort of test of reality. Go ahead, test God with your belief :). Or test whatever it is you’re interested in right now.
The balance is being honest enough with ourselves to let go of beliefs when they’re clearly not in alignment with reality, not healthy for others, or not healthy for ourselves.
posted by Dave Jones at 12:11 PM
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