Sight Unseen

What is faith?

An interesting example really spoke to me while reading Prince Caspian. After rereading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I decided to read the whole series again. Love it!

Lucy, the girl of unshakable faith and trust in Aslan, must wake up her brothers, sister, and Trumpkin and explain that Aslan wants them to travel a difficult road into Narnia, to help Prince Caspian and the Old Narnians. Aslan's way looks more difficult, more rocky, but is the most direct way into Narnia. Only Lucy can see Aslan; her siblings, maybe too caught up in the world, not strong in their relationship with Aslan, cannot see Him. They must follow her (and Aslan) on faith. After following Lucy and Aslan along the dark path, slowly each can see Him.

I love what Aslan tells Lucy.

"Will the others see you too?" asked Lucy.

"Certainly not at first," said Aslan. "Later on, it depends."

It depends for me too, day to day.

Sometimes I feel like Lucy. I can 'see' the path God is calling me to follow, but to others it looks as impenetrable as the cliffs and gorge Aslan lead them along into Narnia. I know I must look 'crazy,' following this adventurous path God has set before me. I know many can't see it, but to me it's as clear as when Lucy saw Aslan in the woods that night.

Too often, though, I feel like Susan, paralyzed by fears, or Peter or Edmund, reliant on my vision and the circumstances I can see, not my inner faith. The if I can't see it, it must not exist. Our world teaches us that 'seeing is believing.' Satan wreaks havoc in my mind, preying all to easily on my fears and doubts. I rely too much on signs from God; I feel like the proverbial Gideon. I need to see something from Him to know I'm on the 'right' path.

But faithfulness is rewarded. We follow God, even when we can't see Him, to only arrive where He's been leading us and see Him. The more we follow, the more we submit, the better we can 'see' Him. And His destination, at least in my experience, is always way cooler and better than mine.

How do we overcome our fears, our doubts, the ploys of Satan? Prayer, faith, and strength to follow God. And practice.

Interestingly, this kind of faith was the subject of Streams in the Desert the day after I finished Prince Caspian.

"By faith Abraham... obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Heb 11:8. The writer then points out 'seeing is not faith but reasoning.'

Maybe, unlike what the world teaches us, it's NOT important to know where we are going, but to know who we're following. Maybe we rely too much on our brains, and not enough on our hearts. The unseen is more important and valuable than the seen.

Faith isn't blind. It's trust. It's "being certain of what we do not see."