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-Rondall Reynoso
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Walking by Faith Is an Act of Reason (2 Corinthians 5:7)
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“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 NRSVue
Reflection
This is an oft-quoted verse, but one I have always found difficult to live by.
I wish I could say that walking by faith rather than sight is easy for me. But it isn’t.
It is hard for me to lean into what I cannot see and what I do not understand. In our post-enlightenment world, there is a real sense in which we are acculturated to only trust what we can see, touch, study, and comprehend.
In all honesty, however, we do not comprehend most of the world around us. We apprehend forces like gravity, the movement of the earth, the passing of time. But we do not really comprehend them.
In a similar way, faith is not contrary to reason. In some ways it is more honest. I admit that I do not comprehend God; I apprehend Him through the character and nature of the universe He created. I have faith in Him because He and His character are consistent with the world I experience. Just as I have faith that when I go to sleep at night, the sun will rise, or when my fingers tap the keys on my computer, the letters will appear on my computer.
I don’t really understand the inner workings of any of that. I trust it to be, because it is consistent with my experience.
This verse in 2 Corinthians appears amid a longer discussion about eternity and the longing we feel for our eternal home. We do not long for that home because we have seen it. We long for it because we have seen the character of God and, as a result, believe what He says is true.
I think the reason I feel that I struggle at times to walk by faith is that I tend to think of faith as hoping against reason. That isn’t faith. Faith is hoping with reason. The reason is that I see and trust the character of God.
Walking by faith rather than sight is not ignoring my sight; it is not being limited by it.
