Page 3 - Developing Faith

Faith

Every endeavor begins with faith: a trip, new business
venture, marriage, university education, purchase of a car or
house, belief in God, etc. Faith that one has a chance of
success always precedes the endeavor and later one gets the
knowledge that the endeavor was either a success or failure.

One may assume that knowledge must precede faith. But, the
fact is that first one has faith and then knowledge follows as
one has practical experience of the endeavor. Faith is defined
as strong or unshakeable belief and trust in something
sublime.

An example of faith
preceding knowledge
is the act of
purchasing an airline
ticket. At the point of
purchase one does not
have knowledge that
the plane will land
safely at the
destination. The pur-
chase of the ticket is
an act of faith that im-
plies one trusts the
airline, its pilots and
crew to safely
navigate the airplane.
Faith Precedes knowledge Only when the air-
plane lands at the
destination does one have knowledge that the plane did land
safely, which validates his initial faith.
The attempt to have knowledge before developing faith is no
guarantee of success. A friend of mine studied a certain
company and its stock performance for one year. At the end
of his exhaustive study he was convinced that the company’s
stock was undervalued. He was also convinced that the
company had excellent scope for growth and increase of
market share in the near future. With these convictions based

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