“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). I think that sometimes we get this scripture backwards. The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, it all sounds so metaphysical. Like, if we show enough faith, then God will miraculously drop the evidence into our laps. It is not the case that faith conjures up the substance of our hopes out of thin air. If we hope for courage and then choose to go forth with faith into the unknown despite our fears, it is that act of faith that is itself the substance of the courage that we hope for. God doesn't zap us with courage. He doesn't take away the fear, but our faith makes us braver because we discover that we are more powerful than we know, and certainly more powerful than that which scares us. Our faith does not lead us to the evidence. Our faith is the evidence. If we have faith in our relationship, we aren't doing the small acts of kindness and courageously taking on the big discussions so that some mystical proof of our true love will hit us and our partner like a bolt out of the blue, but rather, we are providing the evidence of our love through these faithful acts. The substance of things hoped for is real and tangible. It's the physical acts of faith that we engage in each and every day. The evidence of things not seen is brought forth by the visible, “seen” acts of faith that we perform as we make our way through this life. Faith is not about racking up enough brownie points in heaven for God to throw some divine intervention our way. Faith is for the here and now. Faith is being dissatisfied that things are still unseen and it's taking matters into our own hands to go out and get the evidence. Faith is not letting our hopes and dreams remain immaterial and insubstantial and imaginary. Faith is giving substance to our hopes and life to our dreams.
