Blind Faith is Not Enough

Blind faith can only get us so far. In the beginning stages, our faith must be blind. If faith is like a seed, the first step is burying the seed in the ground, where it's completely dark. Our first few steps of faith have to be completely in the dark because we don't yet have the mental and spiritual capacity for the light and knowledge that are to come. Like Nephi when he was asked to build a boat, he had to go find ore to make tools before he was prepared to even think about building that boat. Acting in blind faith is necessary because we have to establish that foundation and those first roots, before we can begin to add light and knowledge and understanding to our faith. But our little seed can't stay always in the dark of the soil laying out more and more roots. Eventually, it has to break through the darkness and into the light. Blind faith is the necessary first step but we won't achieve real growth until we reach for our Savior and plead with Him to open our eyes and our minds and our hearts. When our faith was still a seed, unplanted, all of that light would have done us no more good than holding up a seed for the sunlight would help it to grow. But once our seed has grown enough to have a few leaves above the surface, then just as plants convert sunlight into energy, we can convert the Lord's light into understanding. A lot of people get stuck at that first stage of blind faith and thus have only a partial and thus less positive view on faith. If they didn't stick with it long enough to enjoy the eventual fruits of their faith, or even long enough to burst out of the dark soil so that they can start to see what this faith thing is all about, then it makes sense that they would view trying to live by faith as, at best, pointless, and, at worst, insidious. But it's a mistake to assume that all faith must continue in blindness forever. Acting blindly is an important first step on the road of faith, but the journey only gets more wonderful and glorious once we've stepped from the darkness and into the light. The more we continue to grow in our faith, the more we will see the world and our lives through heaven's eyes and the more we will understand why we act in faith and the more we will begin to apply that faith and knowledge and understanding in new and subtle ways that would have been invisible and meaningless to us before our faith had grown.