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Often we say, "I hope this works!" What would be more accurate in
some situations would be to say, "I wish this will work!" The reason
that is more accurate is that we don't really have faith that the car
will start. We don't believe it will start, but we are going to put the
key in and turn it anyway because we were told to try that. I believe
that at that point, we have faith in the process and not faith in the
car or we have no faith and are being forced to perform an action we
don't really believe will result in the car starting. We are really
wishing the car will start because we don't believe it will happen.
So,
faith is future when we have hope that the source of our faith will
come through for whatever it is we are hoping for. When we have hope for
something, that means that we really have faith that that thing will
come about. Faith is the expression of our future hope. All hope is
future. If you already have what you are hoping for, you are not really
hoping for it - it is already yours.
If we hope the car
will start, then we express our hope by our exercise of faith in the
car and the whole process that got the car where it is by moving from
this moment in time, to the time we turn the key in the ignition.
It
is natural and even spiritual, that, if we have no hope, we have no
faith to express towards the thing we are wishing for. But, if we have
hope, we express it by the actions that result from our faith.
Before I took the car in to the mechanic. I tried to start it, wishing it would start. I didn't believe it would, but I didn't want to take it to the mechanic. I just wanted it to start.
After I took the car to the mechanic, I tried to start it, hoping that it would start. I believed it would start because I believed the mechanic knows more about the car than I do.
There is a kind of faith that faces the past and a kind that faces the future. There isn't a faith for right now.
When we believe something that we want to happen will happen, we have hope.
When we don't believe something that we want to happen will happen, we are wishing.
The past facing faith is really a belief in something you can't prove but you believe it anyway. The faith in the past looks at what has happened and believes that it happened because of a certain reason. When I look back at the glass of milk that I drank just now, I attribute that glass of milk to the whole process that brought it to the store I bought the milk in. I have learned once more that I can trust that process, so I say I have faith in the process. Saying that I have faith in that process to provide milk is really saying that I have faith that I can repeat the process in the future and get the same result.
The faith that points towards the past is really an acknowledgement of a faith that once pointed towards the future. When I get into the car, and I know that cars are meant to start by design when I turn the key in the ignition, that knowledge turns into faith for the future action of turning the key. I also know that I have turned the key in the past and it has always started. That knowledge further supports the faith I have that results in my future action of turning the key.
At the time I get into the car, the turning of the key is still in the future. At that point, I have hope that the car will start. If I doubt that the car will start, I would not have hope and I would probably not turn the key. If I doubt that the car would start and I put the key in and turn it anyway, then I would be acting on a wish out of desperation unless...
If I take my car that won't start to a mechanic, who then works on it, he may tell me to turn the ignition. If I do it, I would be expressing my hope of the car starting because of the work the mechanic has done. I would be trusting the mechanic to fulfill my hope. If I didn't believe that the mechanic fixed it, I would have no hope in it starting and I would probably not turn the key except for the social pressure of the mechanic telling me to. At that point, I would be completely surprised that my wish came true.