About Faith

Some people have a misconception about faith. Maybe this topic will make it more clear.

Two common misconceptions seem to be:

• Some people think that faith is a really big thing—something that requires an extraordinary amount of effort.
• Or, people think that faith is a mysterious, other-worldly type of gift—something that is not common and somehow magically bestowed upon you. Like: "Wow, man, you must have a lot of faith."

Faith is Common

But faith is common and simple. We all use faith every day. Let me illustrate.

You're in a public place and you want a snack or a drink. At some point in your life, you have probably used a vending machine. When you enter a dollar or four quarters into a vending machine and press a button, you are expecting to hear that snack or drink drop. You know that wonderful sound. The act of entering the money and pressing the button is an act of faith.

Components of Faith

Faith involves the following components:

• An action
• An "object" of faith
• A result

In the vending machine illustration, the action is putting money in a slot and pressing a button. The "object" of your faith is the machine. The result is that a snack or drink drops to the bottom where you can retrieve it.

Examples of Faith

The following are simple examples of faith.

Important! In the following examples, I am not implying that God is like a machine.

Action	"Object" of Faith	Result
Place dollar in vending machine and press button	Vending machine	Snack drops and becomes available
In your car, turn the ignition key	Car engine	Car starts
Ask a friend to do an errand	Your friend	Friend does the errand (or not)
Respond to God	God	God does what He promised

Expectations

With faith, expectations can vary.

For example, if you were from another planet that contained NO vending machines, you might be apprehensive about using one. You're not sure what that thing is. You've never seen one before. You don't know anyone who has used one. Therefore, you probably wouldn't risk your money by using one.

On the other hand, if you are from this planet, and if you are a regular vending machine user, and the machines have previously worked 100% of the time, you wouldn't hesitate to throw that dollar in there.

So, expectations about an "object" of faith can be based on:

• your previous experience
• the experience of others
• what you've seen
• what you've heard

You could consider this all of your collective evidence.

Faith Provides Information

Whether you put faith in a vending machine, another person, or God, you learn things as you go.

In the case of the vending machine, when it works as expected, we smile and go on our way. The machine was worthy of our trust. It performed as expected. What if the machine did not drop that snack? Yikes. Reactions can vary from mild frustration to violently banging and shaking the machine. If most of your experience using vending machines was negative, you would obviously be cautious.

In the case of trusting a person, over time, we also get information. We all have friends to whom we would leave the keys to our car, leave the keys to our house, or allow to watch our children. May we all have friends like this. But, obviously, we all know people who we would not trust with some or all of these things. Why? Past information about those friends has indicated that we should think twice.

Small and Big Faith

Here's an interesting observation:

The size of your faith does not determine the result. In the vending machine illustration, if you were apprehensive about the machine delivering the goods, or conversely, if you were completely sure that it would deliver the goods, the result would be the same. The machine would drop the snack or not. The results depend on the reliability of the machine ("object" of faith).

This is why Jesus said: "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

Small faith, big God, same results as having big faith.