The definition is short enough to miss. Faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.
Notice what is absent. There is nothing about emotional intensity, nothing about feeling close, nothing about the absence of questions. Assurance and certainty are words about what you are standing on, not about how you feel while standing there.
That distinction rescues a lot of people. If faith were a feeling, then every flat morning would be evidence of collapse, and most of us would be finished before lunch.
The second half is the harder part. Certainty of what we do not see. Faith by definition operates without the confirmation we keep asking for. If you could see it, the word would not apply.
So the question is not whether you feel convinced today. It is whether you are still standing on the same thing you were standing on when you did.
