Blind Faith

Besides a nice restaurant in Evanston, what do we mean by blind faith. What is faith? I am not just speaking of the religious experience.  What do we believe in that we cannot see, yet we have faith. If I begin reflecting on this word, I know that faith in Spanish is two simple letters: "fe."  Can a word so simple have such deep meaning and wonder?

Is faith something we can rely upon and trust? Do we have faith in the monetary system? I heard a politician once say in defense of his monetary indiscretions, that he had no faith in the monetary system. I wondered why I should have any faith in the political system. In ancient Greece, faith translated to mean: trusted, reliable, of firm persuasion, to be counted on at all times, loyal.

Have you ever embarked on a project that was blazing new ground and you were not sure you could do it? But you relied upon faith to get you through the project. Faith that other people would behave appropriately. Faith that the system would support your project. Faith that decisions made would be the correct ones and when not that they would be recognized and changeable to correct ones. Faith that people will be flexible and adaptable to change that a new project brings. Blind faith.

Placing your faith in other humans can be a risky thing. We have faith that people will embrace diversity in people, yet we are constantly disappointed in the news just about everyday. Faith is sticking to the belief regardless of the disappointment around you. Faith is trusting bankers even after they caused the mortgage meltdown.

There is a story in archeology that when they dug up the city of Pompeii, they found people cowered in basements and hiding in rooftops, but only the Roman soldier was buried in the hot gaseous ash standing guard at his post. Faith is a consistency in your character. It borders on stubbornness and it is hard to tell the difference. Acting with faith is for other humans, things, ideas, and stubbornness is just an all about me attitude.

Faith is what Steve Jobs and Bill Gates relied upon when they quit their jobs at Hewlett Packard after getting turned down to develop personal computers. Faith is what launched FedEx and DHL into the standard of shipping today. Faith is at the core of many Black Swan events.

Things can never be right 100% of the time. Faith gets us through the failures of man. (collectively speaking men and women)  According to Robert Strand, an author of Nine Fruits of the Spirit, if things were right 99.9% of the time there would be:

• 2 unsafe landings at O'Hare every day
• 16,000 pieces of lost mail every hour
• 500 incorrect surgeries every week
• 50 babies dropped on the delivery floor every day
• and 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions every year

I have often wondered if the waitress at the restaurant was just picking on me when the order came incorrect. Somehow even with disappointments and failures we maintain a faith is systems that all will turn out well. The stronger our faith in a spiritual being , or faith is God, (whatever your choosing) the more we should be able to see that the incorrect meal that waitress delivered was meant for us. That a higher spiritual being caused us to miss that plane. If we truly have faith in our lives there is a surprising release of negative energy from failed expectations.

Accepting faith actions from others, and acting faithfully toward others is the balance of living in blind faith. What do you believe in that you cannot see yet trust?

+TmC