Ever stand and watch an elderly lady be knocked down and her purse ripped off of her arm? Of course not, you are going toward her, yelling at the one who is doing such an awful thing to a defenseless old lady. You don’t walk the other way and ignore it, you intervene and if necessary assist her if she is injured. Why do you do that?
Ever sit and watch a young girl be raped and beaten by a stronger male? Do you just walk away and ignore her screams of fear and pain? Even if you can’t physically intervene you immediately alert the authorities or others nearby. Why do you do that?
What if you see a car wreck on a lonely road? What if an infant is left in a basket in a park? Or a hungry child stands outside a restaurant window looking at you, as you eat a big meal? What if your neighbor’s house is on fire, someone is lying on the sidewalk motionless or a person is drowning at the beach? If able, anyone will intervene physically immediately. You don’t even know them and you must somehow help them -why?
There are no schools that teach a person to respond to these situations. There is not a universal human law which says we must do these acts of compassion. Nowhere in our educational progression are we instructed on how to respond to someone truly in need. So why do we do it?
The educated will have 10,000 emotional, physiological, and psychological hypotheses to explain it and yet with so many opinions, can they all be right? They feel that they must explain the unexplainable because they are threatened by anything which they cannot rationalize, understand, or control. They feel it is their duty to keep “we the simple” from making the mistake of believing anything which does not fit their idea of reality.
Invisible souls? Invisible God? Invisible Holy Spirit? Eternal life? Ridiculous you say. But is it really ridiculous? If our five senses cannot feel it, smell it, taste it, hear it, or see it, does this make it “not real?”
Imagine it you’re sitting on the porch at dusk on a perfect, still, moonless spring afternoon breathing in the scent of flowers, listening to crickets, and watching the sky, the trees, and the ground disappear before your eyes. The moist dewy air replacing the dryer daytime air as the humidity rises causing you to perspire. You can taste the flavor of wet, grass and trees as you breathe in and out. You reach for a blanket to cover your bare legs as the cool of the night begins to replace the sweat of the days heat.
We breathe in but we do not see the air entering or exiting our lungs, but no one would say that the air does not exist because we cannot see it. We smell the flowers, the trees, and the grass even in the dark, we don’t even know where these smells are coming from, yet because we are not in their presence we do not say they are imagined. We hear the crickets never-ending song, and yet they are invisible to the eye. The forest, the field, and the sky disappear into the night, yet we do not consider them gone, we accept that that which is invisible is there by faith.
Our mouth can taste the world around us as we breath the scents of the surrounding world and our legs can feel the cold unseen creeping up from our feet. Unseen, unheard, tasteless, and scentless. Every sense, sight, sound, taste, smell, and feeling are betrayed by the unknown. All of them impossible for us as human beings to explain. We believe in the air, we believe in the forest and the field, we believe in the flowers and the grass’ scent, we believe in the crickets’ song, we believe in the taste of the outdoors and we believe in the cold of night.
We believe that a child is worthy of saving from the street, we believe that a little old lady should be rescued from a purse snatcher, we believe that a young girl should not be raped or tortured, we believe that a wreck on a deserted road is a call to action, we believe that an infant left alone in a public park is in trouble, we believe that a hungry child at the window of our restaurant should be fed, we believe our neighbors burning house is our duty to try to save life and property, we believe that a person lying face down on the sidewalk needs help and we believe that a person caught in the current and drowning needs us to act.
Why? Why? Why? A thousand times why?
It makes no scientific sense for one human being to react and care for a complete stranger at the possible inconvenience, jury, or death which could befall them. What could it possibly profit them? It will not profit them, rather, it will certainly cost them time, money, injury, or even possibly death to intervene, and yet they do. They can hear the danger, they can feel the danger, they can see the danger, and sometimes even smell and taste the danger. Yet they will often disregard their physical senses and submit to another sense. An invisible force greater than our physical senses. A power so great it overrides our self-preservation protocols, the very opposite reactions which evolution, natural selection, survival of the fittest, and other naturalistic origin teachings would produce.
These are powers which defy age, ethnicity, culture, and explanation. They are impossible to deny, and exist as a universal phenomenon. Everyone has seen it, everyone has felt it, some of us have done it. Like it or not it is as real as your hand is.                    Regardless of who you are, you are a person of faith. When you reach for the light switch you are sure it will turn the light on, even before it happens. At 4:30 in the morning you are certain that within the next hour, the eastern sky will begin to brighten, and dawn will break soon. A hundred times a day you turn a key, flip a switch, push a button, turn a knob, dial a number, text a message, and in each one of these actions you are convinced of what will occur even before it happens. “That is faith!” You are a person of practical faith, oh yes you are.
Among Webster’s definitions of the work faith are; “to trust,” “to believe,” “to be convinced of,” unquestioning belief which does not require proof or evidence, complete trust confidence, or reliance. When we flip the light switch in the dark, we do not believe it will remain dark do we? No, we believe even before it happens by faith. We have faith in the light, the ignition switch, the door knob, and the phone (unless you have my phone, carrier), but that’s for another day.
We are trained by exercise and repetition what the outcome of each of our actions will be and we are totally surprised when the switch, the button, or the knob doesn’t give the usual result. All people practice faith, whether they believe they do or not, they do.
In the dark, we believe that if we walk where we believe the table is we will run into it and pain will result, so we don’t walk there, do we? That is blind faith. The unseen has dictated our physical actions and produced a tangible result. Our faith and belief in the pain which we feel in our foot or knee is rewarded by a favorable result; no pain. Faith has manifested a real measurable result. Likewise, if we believe that the table is in one place when it is not, we are rewarded by the opposite result; pain. Another real, tangible result of our faith, however misguided.
Since we are all people of practical faith, perhaps we should consider other forms of faith also. The forms of practical faith, light switches, etc., which we have already unknowingly mastered are only the beginning of our journey in faith. We can now also accept that the forces which cause us to chase the child to the street, save the little old lady from the purse snatcher and call 911 to assist the young girl being raped are unexplainable and yet real. The fact that nearly anyone would react similarly to each of these situations is proof positive that forces beyond ourselves do exist. Not only do they exist, but they exist in you. If you don’t believe me try to just stand silent the next time a child runs toward a busy street. You just cannot do it. Not rational, not practical, not intentional, yet compelling, irresistible, and oh so real.
We all believe in this common force. All of us do. You are a person of faith, oh yes you are! You believe in this phenomenon, you have seen it, you have heard about it, you have felt it, you already believe in things unexplainable. Remember Webster’s definition of faith; “unquestioning belief which does not require proof or evidence.” You have already experienced and acted on faith beyond the practical light switch faith which you have practiced all your lives. It’s time to accept it, you believe and practice supernatural faith already, yes you do. You are a person of supernatural faith because you cannot deny that you believe in something supernatural.
Back to Webster’s dictionary. Supernatural is defined as; existing or occurring outside the normal experience or knowledge of man, not explainable by the known forces of laws of nature.
Wow, this is exciting. Let it sink in a minute, or an hour, or a week, or however long it takes to wrap your mind around this. If you are like many, you may have denied that supernatural exists and thought yourself far from it. Yet, you have been living it for a long time. This will be exciting to many and scary to some, because until now you thought you were controlling your own life and circumstances. This admission of your participation in the supernatural is the most important thing you will ever do, it is a game changer to every person who is honest with themselves.
If this is the first time you have realized you are a person of practical faith and a person of supernatural faith, don’t be afraid. Many have made this trip before you, many will follow. This is a door which can never again be closed, you have now crossed through it to the other side. So where do you go from here? Webster’s 3rd College Dictionary gives a second half of the definition of supernatural as follows; of, involving, or attributed to God, or a god.
Isn’t it interesting that the word supernatural’s definition is summarized by the words “of, involving or attributed to God or a god.” Webster’s dictionary, a very respected source book with worldwide use and relied upon by millions and millions daily connects the supernatural with God.
Let’s explore this connection on just a face value level. If I believe in or practice things supernatural, I am indirectly giving an unintentional personal testimony that God exists. How odd, even if we have never thought the thought that God exists as a fact, my actions are already supporting my subconscious belief in His existence. You are a person of practical faith, you are also a person of supernatural faith. And some of you must admit now, however hard, your actions reveal that you just might believe in God also.
I hope you are still with me as this is a stunning development. If you’re already a believer in God, you know where this leads. If you are not or have just realized that you are, you should stay right here with me a few more minutes. Mathematically it is a pretty simple equation 1+1+1. But it is as complex as any equation on the earth.
1 You are a person of practical faith, +1 you are a person of supernatural faith, +1 you believe in God.
It could be argued that the first and second 1’s do not qualify the third, but, let’s look more closely. If something happens once in a lifetime that could be considered chance. If I only ran toward the first child going toward the busy street that would be a chance occurrence. If I did this the 2nd time and the 3rd time it would be a pattern of behavior but if everyone does the same thing every time then it can only be called a universal behavior, a fact, or ever a law.
Chance occurrences are rare or varied at best, they can easily be explained, but a universal constant gives the force behind the behavior substance, or a (body) if I can use that word. Something caused you to do that, something causes everyone to do that.                          Someone who denies still that they are a person of faith cannot tread here, but you who are truly seeking the answers that all men have sought from the beginning of time; where did I come from? Why am I here, and is this all there is?
All these questions can now be answered in your new found faith.