Why We Need Faith

By Emma Wanjiku

Faith is extremely important in our lives and in many cases, we have nothing but faith. Different people put their faith on different things. However, most of us have faith in common things and this is one of the aspects that identify us as human beings. From when you are born into the world, this is where faith begins. You go through life hoping that the future will hold all you desire. If there was absence of faith, people would not take their children to school. Even planning to have a child would be out of the question. If you did not have faith, you would not sacrifice for the future and this is the essence of faith. We depend on faith for every day.

The belief that business of life everyday will go on is faith. The direct opposite of faith is hopelessness and despair. Some people have become too integrated with normal happenings of life and they do not consider their beliefs to be faith. For example, when you go to sleep, you might think that the obvious or logical thing is to wake up the next morning. People have become accustomed to the norms of life but at some point in our lives, life will deal us a huge blow. All this reminds us that there is nothing ordinary about events of life; we really do not know anything.

The desire to reach for the extra ordinary is best defined through religion. Religion is seen as the gateway to supernatural power that hold answers that are above us; having faith in God. Most human beings recognize that they do not have answers to all questions. God is perceived to the one who holds all the processes of life and the great debate today is faith in God. There are all kinds of gods in the world today and this has lead to deeper divisions and even confusion. It is not a good idea to get into debates on which god is the true God. Some people will argue that there are several real gods while other insists that there is one god who takes different forms.

The bottom line is that life is filled with great pain, joys and things we cannot simply understand. For this reason, we cannot rule out God completely irrespective of the religion we hail from. So the big question remains do you need faith? I think we all need faith and whether we realize it or not, we are wired to respond to faith. The bible says that faith comes by hearing. In life, you will build your faith on whatever you decide to dominate your life; you will have faith in whatever you choose to have faith in. Knowing that you do not have all the answers to life is one thing. Knowing that you have a power to overcome all doubts and always hope for the best is another. I choose to have hope and if this is faith, then let it be.