the substantiation of things hoped for *

Hebrews 11: 1-2  --  "Now faith is the substantiation of what is hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. For by it the elders obtained a testimony."**
"Faith" is a big word in Christianity. But this is the only place in Scripture in which it is defined.*** I spent a semester studying this verse and Hebrews 11 in general, and the whole chapter really boils down to this one question: what is faith? (And, by extension, what does faith do?)
What better way to answer that question than by its definition?
Faith is substantiation. What then is "substantiation"? It is an old, old word! ;) It means "the giving of substance to, the making real of something." It is the taking of an idea and making it "be." It is, in a way, echoing God's creation: He took an idea, and made it corporeal. But more than that, He took a divine plan, and put it into motion. For us creatures, substantiation is a bit different. I call it 'making God's reality real.' Causing God's reality to become visible in our experience. What is God's reality? Himself. His kingdom over all. Our perfection in Christ.
But without faith we cannot see this. That is why it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb. 11:6). Because without faith, nothing of God is real in a way we can understand. Faith brings God, and His kingdom, to earth, down in the nitty-gritty of ordinary life, where it matters.
And that is why faith is the substantiation of things hoped for.
What is hope?
There is a saying, "hope springs eternal." More aptly, we could say "hope springs from the Eternal."
If faith is the way God's reality is brought to earth, hope is what knows God's reality is both up there and here, already. Hope is the confident, active expectation of God at work for good. It's never wishful thinking or pie-in-the-sky. Hope says "God is at work here. Now. All we need is the eyes of faith to find Him. But while we watch, we prepare His way...and suddenly we will find He was in it all."
That is why faith is also "the evidence of things unseen."
Once again, there is the unseen that is no less real, just less visible.
Once again, there is the confident search for the presence of what is not tangible.
And once again, there is that making real/knowing the reality of God (and that single word "know" deserves a whole other post of its own).
For by it the elders obtained a testimony.
What is a testimony?
It is a declaration of God's work in a life.
It is faith - how what God has made and done has become your reality.
And it is a beautiful thing! :)

*This was written a long while ago, but still relevant, as Scripture always is :) I'm glad I rediscovered it!
**Note that the verse above is a "Cara translation" ...which is not to say (unfortunately) that I know Greek, but rather that by study of the surrounding verses and by the Spirit's leading I picked the words from each translation that best conveyed the essence of the verse...
***I believe this is true. I remember learning it somewhere, but don't remember where/when...at any rate, I haven't found anything to disprove it, but I haven't done an exhaustive search.