Some time ago, my mom handed me a piece of computer paper with a neatly typed essay on it, an essay I had written my freshman year of college titled “Facts are Fluid; Faith is Rock Solid”

As a 19 year old, I developed a fascination with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and was inspired to write about it. I never really struggled in my faith, but somehow this particular philosophy strengthened everything I ever believed, and I would go on to use it to minister to others throughout my life.

In “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato describes a group of prisoners chained to a wall who have lived that way for the entirety of their lives. The prisoners faced a blank wall and watched shadows projected onto the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them. The shadows are the prisoners’ reality but are not completely accurate representations of the real world; they could not see the bigger picture. The prisoners are unable to know that the shadows themselves are not the direct source of the images seen but instead come from objects projecting the images.

The prisoners in the allegory represent mankind’s limitations, and the shadows represent the fragment of reality that we can perceive through our senses. The only reality we can ever know is that which is perceived through our five senses. Because of this, facts aren’t necessarily reliable; they are not concrete but are always changing based on what we learn.

The truth is, no matter what you choose to believe or disbelieve, it all requires a leap of faith. Christians place their faith in Christ. Atheists place their faith in their five senses, but as illustrated in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, we see our senses are not always reliable.

Today I want to encourage you to place your faith in the God who is love Himself, the God who sent His one and only Son to die for us, the God who does not change. In an ever changing world, rock solid faith is what I will rest in.