Faith: the word

I've been thinking a lot lately about the word "faith". Like the words "tolerance" and "change", I think people casually throw them around assuming that everyone is in agreement as to what is meant by the word. Most everyone wants change to take place, but not everyone is in agreement as to what that change should look like. So to just toss out that word "change"may sound great, but it doesn't really tell us anything until it is defined in detail so people can either say yes or no to it. Once that is done the consensus call for change becomes much less than consensus as people say "I want change, but I don't want your brand of change". The same is true with faith.

Politicians are great for throwing out the word "faith", especially when it comes to campaigning. People in general talk about how important faith is in their life. But oftentimes the farthest they go in a speech or in their day to day talking is to just say the word "faith" and assume everyone knows what they are talking about. But faith means different things to different people, and the object of their faith may be very different than what you might presume. Faith must have an object. For many people that would be God, for others it might be a person or a group, it could even be an idea or a tree. I just wish people would identify the object of their faith whenever they use that word. In other words for me I would generally speak of my faith in God. I might at times speak of my faith in the American people, but I would never want to confuse my faith in God with my faith in the American people. And so to speak of my "faith" and just my "faith", really doesn't tell anyone anything. They might assume I'm speaking of God when I am speaking of the American people, or of a friend, or of myself.

I hope to spend more time on this blog speaking about faith, specifically faith in God. Please check back.