“Blind faith”, they say.
“They are just naive, they haven’t tasted the hardships and realities of life”, they say.
“Ignore them, they are dumb. I’ll believe it when I see it. Otherwise what you call “faith” is nonsense”, they say.

I’ve heard these sayings so many times before that it has become familiar. But just because it’s familiar, doesn’t mean it’s the truth. I believe faith is much more than what the world think it is, so I decided to look closely at my past experiences and my spiritual journey with God. This is what I observe:

1. We are all on a journey towards a certain destination
2. We have to take a first step to eventually get there
3. There will be a process to get there, it’s not just an instant one step goal
4. The toughest, most confusing, most tense part is during the journey

In these observations I find that faith isn’t supposed to be seen with your physical eyes. Faith is a heart issue. Faith is a transformation of the mind. Faith is the vehicle. It is not the road, nor the final destination. Faith is what we need to hold on to, the harness that will take us safely to the ground. Can’t you see? Faith is the leap we need to take to bridge this alignment between the facts we have now and the things we hope to see coming in the future. The things of God that we are anticipating to come forth. This is where faith comes to play.

Faith was never about the things we can see now, because these things don’t need faith. These things are things, they are real and they are a fact. Faith is something we take on the journey; when we have taken steps into our destination, we are not quite there yet. But our focus was never meant to be the things we see around us. These things are simply a part of where we are going to, not the core of our faith. This is where the famous Hebrews 12 verse comes in:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Pray diligently. Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. -Colossians 4:2 

Hebrews 12 reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the champion and perfecter of our faith. We open our eyes wide open and instead of looking left and right on our circumstances, we look straight ahead to Jesus. We focus on the path He has set before us, knowing that He is with us in every step. Stay alert, with your eyes WIDE OPEN, says Colossians 4. Not in worry, not in anxious waiting, not in patience that are constantly being tested. Not even in awareness of what’s going on around us, but further on in gratitude. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus and keep our eyes wide open in gratitude. We do this because we understand that if God is for us, truly what can stop us.

Who says it’s blind faith? We jump into our unknown future with eyes wide open, more focused than ever on the God who will carry us through the journey and into the fulfilment of His promises. This is faith, this is what we hold on to.