Our pastor reminded the church full of people that it is impossible to live without faith; everyone has faith in something. He cited some examples that got me to thinking about the most analogous faith people have that might help others better understand faith in God. Electricity explains our faith.

Electricity: You have a sense of its power, you can’t see it, you likely don’t understand it at the atomic level, and you trust that it will do its work every time you call on it to do so. You take it for granted. You fully understand its power to kill or injure you, but you sometimes forget that downside of its power. You feel lost when its power is not there for you, sometimes you’re even scared without it, especially when you’re in stormy conditions. If you think about it, you recognize how electricity is part of every aspect of your life in ways grand and miniscule. Electrical current runs through wires across hill and dale, and electrical impulses fire in your brain, and everything in between. A lot is understood about electricity, but there is much more to learn.

Now, replace “electricity” with “God.”

Electricity-as-a-show-of-faith also defeats the challenges of those who condemn our faith in God because of the actions and flaws of many of the leaders (past and present) of the Church. When is the last time you heard someone say that they would not use electricity because of: personality quirks of Benjamin Franklin, character flaws of Edison or Tesla, misdeeds of all those involved with building power plants and distribution lines, failures of the generations of physicists who have studied electricity, and so on? Despite the checkered histories of millions who have produced, distributed, studied and utilized electricity, billions of people trust in the power and empowerment of electricity with full confidence and faith that it will be there for them at all times. They don’t understand it, but they have complete faith in its power; that is how believers are about God.

Everyone has faith in something, or a variety of somethings. By understanding how faith works, it is easier to understand how easy it is for people who have faith in God, notwithstanding all the negatives of the human beings who have been involved in that which is the object of faith. Faith endures.