Believing is seeing
Reflections on 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
“So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing.” 2 Corinthians 5:6&7
As a child growing up, like many of you, I was a 4-H member. Over my years I learned many things through the projects that were available to me. When I was 14 a new project was introduced called aviation; a project that if you went far enough, taught you to fly a small aircraft.
In the time I spent on this project, I was to fly three times with an instructor. The first time was to take off from the runway, fly around a bit, and land. I was amazed. The second time, I was taught how to take off and land, with the instructor of course. That was thrilling. The third time the instructor had the plane airborne, asked me to put on a hood and fly the plane for a short time. That puzzled me. He said that if I advanced far enough in my lessons, I would be trained to fly the plane on instruments so if I couldn’t see the ground or fly in questionable weather, I would do it safely. However, I would have to learn my lessons well regarding the plane before I would be trained to fly by instruments. The downside to all of this, I didn’t have $1,000.00 to start basic training.
However, that experience did teach me a big lesson about my faith. For me to continue believing in God’s love for me and Jesus’ gift of forgiveness, I would have to know how God acts in the world and how he feels about people. Because when hard and questionable events happen in life, by faith I would need to know all is well in God’s hand.
How this happened for me and with everyone who desires to know God’s work in the world, is to study the Bible diligently. The way God treated people in the past, is the same way he treats people today. When a person breaks a law or does their own desire outside of God’s will, we know what will happen; and then eventually God brings us back to his desire. How do we know this? It is in the Bible. Through prayer we make known to God what our needs are; does God answer prayer, yes he says yes, no, or maybe. How do we know this? It is in the Bible. It may take years of studying the Bible, going on spiritual retreats, reading spiritual works from others that have been in our situation before, listening to music that feeds our soul.
There will be times in life that we may have a hood placed over our eyes, much like in the airplane, which may puzzle us or give a scary feeling. People saying we are going the wrong way, believing the wrong things, trying to sway us to the way society thinks and feelings; instead of what God’s will is. But though our eyes are covered we see three things: The love of God, the forgiveness of Jesus, and the activity of the Holy Spirit. Through our belief we see, no matter what confronts us each day, we know that God is in charge and will lead us to our heavenly home.
Dear Lord, sometimes daily life is frustrating and scary. However, knowing you and what you did for all who believe in you, there is a calmness that is felt, knowing all is well. Use me to reach out to others so they may see you through their belief. Amen.