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Thursday, November 22, 2007

Blind Faith

People have a hard time of understanding faith. Blind faith, they call it. Some said, "I can't feel it. I can't see it." Question is, when did people start to look for proofs and evidences and stop trusting their instinct and heart feeling?

How does a mother bird know that the moment she shake loose the nest, her little birds won't just drop down from 500 feet and die? Instead she just knows that her little birds will learn how to fly. Why does that mother bird know? Is it because the statistic collected in the past 1 gazillion years shows that birds will learn how to fly when you shake loose the nest and let them fall? Or is it because the mother bird is such a good economist that she can count exactly when her little birds are ready to fly off? NO! It's faith.

When it comes to faith, I believe that no amount of statistics, and evidences can ever convince everyone that God does exist. We just have to trust Him and follow Him by faith; blind faith. While science demands proof and evidence that God exists, religion however demands blind faith. I'll give an illustration of blind faith and let's see whether or not blind faith is better off than proof and evidence.

Imagine yourself wearing a blindfold and being placed inside a giant maze. You cannot see anything and the only way for you to get out of the maze is through a headphone. The person who will be communicating with you(let's call him Simon) holds the map of the maze and a GPS, so he knows where exactly you are and how you should walk to get out of the maze. However, you do not know that Simon has a map and GPS system with him.

Since you are blind, when he says right, you go right. When he says left, you go left. When he says stop, you stop. You cannot question him because you are blindfolded and you have only him to cling on to. He's your only real chance of getting out of the maze alive. You just have to believe that he knows the way.

It is hard to trust someone when you can't see. It is definitely inconvenient and it can make you very nervous and insecure. However, you cannot just give up on Simon because he is the only person that you have.

Because you listen to him, you make it to exit of the maze. Congratulations.

Now, imagine yourself in this giant maze again. This time, without the blindfold. You still have Simon guiding you, except that this time you can see. What will happen to you?

I am very sure that most of us, if not all, will question Simon sooner or later.
"Are you sure this is the right way? Are you sure? I think THAT is the correct path. No no, this is taking me too long. The opening there is wider, it has to be that direction." blah blah blah

I am sure that when we can see, we will start to judge and see. We will start to question. We will demand proof and evidence that Simon is giving the right direction. We might doubt him because now, we do not have to rely on Simon 100% We have our EYES to seek for our own direction.

In the end, we might come out of the maze eventually after quarreling and arguing with Simon.
Some of us don't even make it out of the maze and just die there because we spent too much time arguing and doubting Simon who CLEARLY had the right map and knows what he was doing.

You might say this, "No, this will not happen to me. I'm sure that I will listen to Simon and follow his instruction."

O REALLY? Well, I don't think so. Human are rebellious. Eventually, you will think that you might be right and that Simon might be wrong. After all, you have no idea that he is holding a map. You might think that Simon is trying to play you around. Or maybe after some time, you figure that it is taking you too long to get out of the maze and you begin to feel furious. Then you start taking your own path(since you can see) and ignore Simon for good.

Thing is, the simple analogy I have just presented is exactly what I thought of when it comes to blind faith. Sometimes, we just have to follow God and have faith in Him. Because if we can "see" the proof and evidence, there will be no need for God be around. And get this too, life is like a giant maze. Sometimes we come to a dead end. However, if we just listen to God and walk His way, eventually, we will get out of the maze....safely. If we fight back, we might still get out of the maze but it will take us a long long time before we finally get out of the maze. More often than not, in our midst of ignoring God and His voices and directions, we might just die in the maze before we even get out of it.

Nonetheless, our God respects our freedom of choice. That's why He lifted the blindfold off our eyes EVEN THOUGH He knows that there will be a chance of us rebelling against Him.

Question:
Are we willing to ignore our sight and just listen to God's instruction or do we prefer to wander aimlessly in the maze of life hoping that we will find a way out eventually?

2 comments:

gloria :) said...

very good analogy...how true it is!!

Anonymous said...

The problem is, there are so many Simons in our lives. And when this version of Simon is telling you to "keep moving forward" when you know that you are facing a wall, would you still say "hey, you MUST trust Simon"?