“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” – Hebrews 11:1 (NIV).

Faith is probably one of the most commonly used words in Christian circles. We talk about putting our faith in God. We call ourselves “people of faith” or “believers.” Martin Luther proclaimed loudly enough some 500 ago that salvation is by faith alone that we still hear him loud and clear today. Faith is profoundly important; yet, if we’re not careful in our understanding of faith, it can lose a lot of its power.

A very close synonym of faith is belief. I can say that I have faith that my car will make it to the city. What I usually mean is that I believe, given what I know about my car, that it will make it to the city. If we are fully justified in a belief, we tend to call that belief knowledge.

A lot of our knowledge comes to us second-hand. For example, we know that water is made up of molecules and each of those molecules consists of three atoms (two hydrogen and one oxygen). As a point of fact, nobody has ever seen an individual water molecule with their own eyes and very few of us have ever seen one in any sense at all. We know about the makeup of water because reliable authorities have told us that that’s the only reasonable way to understand water.

It's easy to think that faith operates in much the same way. I’ve often heard faith likened to the wind. You can’t see it, but you can feel it. So, you “know” it’s there. In this article, I’m going to take the possibly controversial stance that this isn’t a good way to understand faith. As I understand scripture, faith and knowledge are not similar concepts, but possibly opposites.

While it’s true that we can’t see the wind, we can run experiments on it. We can build wind tunnels and fully model its behavior with scientific formulas. Even if we can’t do any of that personally, we can learn from the conclusions of those who have. Wind can be contained and studied as a finite phenomenon. Given enough effort, wind can be fully understood.

The object of our faith, on the other hand – the God of the universe – is an infinite and free agent that defies containment and experimentation. In our limited understanding, we can’t ever hope to fully comprehend God. God provides us with glimpses of God’s character and nature – most significantly in Jesus and scripture – but that’s all we get. The rest is a matter of faith.

So, what am I getting at? I’m becoming increasingly convinced that faith – true faith – has an inherent aspect of absurdity to it. If I’m acting in ways that make complete sense to me, I’m not acting out of faith, but out of knowledge – my own limited knowledge.

I opened with Hebrews 11:1. This chapter is a highlight reel of human faith. However, the wrap-up, in verses 39-40, begins in a very startling way, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised …”

When reading about these heroes, it’s easy to think how smart they were to choose the path of faith. On the contrary, they devoted their entire lives to a promise that they never saw fulfilled. They had confidence in what they hoped for, but that hope always remained just that, a hope. They weren’t driven by practical concerns or the best laid plans. They were driven by a relentless faith in something – or more accurately someone – they could never fully understand. They knew that it was their part to be faithful and it was God’s part to secure their future well-being and, more importantly, the well-being of future generations.

I’m afraid that, in our daily walks, we too easily replace this irrational faith with the cheap counterfeit of friendly pragmatism. We take the warm and fuzzy teachings of Jesus and apply them when we can but are more practically minded on the big stuff. Instead of seeking God first, we seek what we see as positive outcomes and hope that God’s on board with our plans and understandings. We sing “Oceans” on Sunday morning, but spend the week chilling in the kiddie pool.

What hard thing is God asking you to do? What is God calling you to that would seem like complete nonsense if not for faith?