Our Default Is Belief

"Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). The term "unbelief" implies that a belief has been rendered untenable or ineffectual. What I mean to say is that for there to be unbelief, there must first be belief that then through effort and doubt and fear transforms into unbelief. If our default was doubt, then we would call it undoubt when we believe in something, but it's clear that our default is belief. We are believing creatures. We believe that when we fall asleep, we're going to wake up again. We believe if we put gas in our car it will run, even if we have no idea, really, how a car works. We believe if we save our money today, we'll still be able to spend it tomorrow. Unbelief is real and like the man who pleaded with Jesus to heal his son, it can be a terrifying burden to deal with. But it doesn't change the fact that unbelief comes after belief and is derived from belief. It should be comforting to know that we actually start from a place of belief, rather than a place of unbelief, and that we have the capacity and the divine help to get snatched from the clutches of unbelief and carried on the wings of belief once more. Just as a series of small choices and reactions may have transformed our belief into unbelief, so too can a series of small choices and actions transform our unbelief back into belief. At the root of all unbelief is belief, and if we can peel off all of those "un-s", all of the rationalizations, all of the lies, the false assumptions, then we will find underneath our belief is still alive and well and ready to support us once more.