Many centuries ago, Anselm, the Catholic prelate who served as the archbishop of Canterbury in eleventh century England, remarked that, "He who has not experienced will not understand."  Anselm was referring to the process of spiritual discernment, that in terms of spiritual matters, often we will not understand them until we either experience them, believe in them, or both.  This explains, in part, why the religious among us may meet with looks of, depending on to whom they are talking, bemusement, annoyance, befuddlement, or outright anger when they present matters of faith.  Those who have not found what the religious have found frequently have no categories for grasping what they are saying.  To them, it's nonsense.  In addition, too often those of faith will tell those who are not that the reason they cannot understand matters of faith is that, "You have to believe," or "You just don't understand."
     To a point, this is true.  If one does not believe in a religious doctrine, that doctrine may indeed appear to be lunacy.  Or if one has not "experienced" a religion, talk of such experience will seem silly, even crazy.  This leads to two possibilities.  One, there are certain religious experiences which people will not understand unless they, too, believe in the possibility and factuality of such experiences.  Two, those who experience such things are simply deluded by what is no more than a psychological phenomenon.  There is no real religious "experience" to be had.  It's difficult to find a middle ground:  either one "sees," or one does not.
     Herein lies the final challenge--and paradox--of faith.  To believe, one needs faith.  But to have faith, one needs to believe faith is viable.  And to believe faith is viable is to acknowledge that there is something, something as real as the sunshine, to which that faith points.  Yet to do this is to have faith as well.  Either way, faith is difficult.
     Unfortunately, however, faith is the only way to really experience--and believe.