Assurance of the Things Unseen

In Hebrews faith is defined as the assurance of the things unseen.  In modern understandings, however, faith has been relegated to merely a trust in things that cannot be empirically observed, specifically dealing with spiritual things.  Yet this redefinition is an insufficient understanding of what faith is and how naturally we employ it throughout every moment of the day.

Consider gravity.  It is a verifiable, repeatable, and observational relationship between two bodies if mass.  Yet, in the most basic sense, these relationships themselves are, in fact, unseeable.  We cannot actually see gravity, we can only observe its effects, the echoes of its existsence.  Yet we have faith in its properties and in its existence without any thought.

Or apply this of the relationships between husband and wife: they cannot see, it turns out, the marriage itself, for only the effects, the shadows of their relationship can truly be seen and verified empirically. Yet we do not discount the faith that draws together the man and woman in matrimony.  In this way, faith is not just a word we use to describe a private ascension to a set of theological assertions.  Instead, it is a trust in the invisible relationships that dominate every aspect of our lives and of all creation.

Thus when we have discussions of faith and about faith, we need to take into account how pervasive faith actually is.  In truth, then, our understandings of faith are perhaps some of the most important things about us.  While space does not permit an exhaustive dissection of faith suffice to say it is vital that our definitions of faith, its purview and its significance, be as accurate in taking into account all of the data so that it can once again be affirmed as a valid source for absolute truth.