What Does It Mean To Have Faith?

I was raised in a Seventh Day Adventist colony in rural Humboldt County in Northern California. Except for my parents and my Uncle Frank's family, the members of the colony were elderly retired people who had moved to Eel Rock to escape the sins of the large cities and, more importantly, to await the second coming of Christ. Despite the false prophesies of the churches founder, Sister Ellen G. White, these God fearing people believed with every fiber of their frail bodies that the second coming was imminent. All of these true believers have been dead for 50 years or more and, to my knowledge, there still has been no sighting of the savior. Nonetheless, there undoubtedly are many Seventh Day Adventists alive today who cling to the belief that the second coming is at hand, just as they did in the days of my grandfather. As far back as I can remember, I struggled with the concept of faith which, of course, is the basis of all Christian religions. Now, in my 78th, I believe I have the answer. This is a bitter pill to swallow because without faith one must face the fact that at the time of death life ends and there is no tomorrow, here or anywhere else and certainly not in Heaven. So what is the definition of faith? What does it mean to have faith? Faith is the willingness to believe in something that in unbelievable, its really as simple as that. There are many examples of misguided faith in everyday life as well as religious lore. In today's world there are members of religious cults who forgo medical treatment for themselves and their children because they believe, to their dying breath, that their faith alone will be enough to cure them of the cancer that is literally eating them alive as they sit by and do nothing. Millions, if not billions, believe that their prayers will be answered despite clear evident to the contrary. If prayers were answered no none would became seriously ill, let alone die, and everyone undoubtedly would be rich. If only that were the case! The Bible, of course, is rife with examples of misguided faith. In this respect, absent blind faith, could any sane person believe that a man could walk on water; turn water into wine; be born of a virgin; or come back from the dead? Along the same vein, could any rational being believe that holy water has some magical quality or that lighting candles for the dead could possibly be of the slightest significance to the deceased? I think not! I see no harm in having faith except for the fact that to allow one's self to believe in the unbelievable is somewhat irrational and demeaning to the human spirit.