Know, Really!

You know a lot of stuff, don't you? In your head, I mean. You do a lot of stuff with your hands, too. You've got quite a lot of skills if you think about it. But would you admit, with me, that what we have in our head often contradicts what we are doing with our bodies?

Many times a day, I say "I know," when a friend or family member tells me something, but within moments I act as if I didn't know anything at all. "Careful! That oven tray is hot," my wife might call to me in the kitchen, and I reply "I know," as I reach for it with bare hands...

Small mistakes resulting in burnt fingers, and other consequences, happen every day, and it's not something to be too bothered about, is it? But 'being human' never limited us to only making small mistakes. Big ones happen too...

The main example I know of here is faith. Atheists are known to say "I know there is no such thing as God," but when in a tight spot, even atheists have admitted to praying for help. In a similar way, church attendees across the world say "I know there is a God," on Sunday morning, but during the other six days of the week they live as if they are alone in a universe without hope.

The Bible does know about this, and has helped me to use my language more clearly. I've been saying that you can 'know' something without really 'knowing' it. The book of James in the New Testament says that you can 'believe' in God, but that's no use until you act on that belief, which is called 'faith'. Belief plus action equals faith. Even demons believe in God, James points out, but belief by itselfhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif accomplishes nothing.

So I can test myself. I only really believe something if I believe it so much that it affects my actions and decisions. Do I have enough faith to do something about it?



See another post about Language...

Image source: http://bethinnc.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html