Faith or conversion?  Given that my "conversion" to Christianity was a rather dramatic one, an encounter from which I emerged feeling distinctly and forever different, I enjoying comparing my experience withh those who did not encounter Jesus in the same way.  Given that we are all different people with different backgrounds and circumstances, it is logical and fitting that we would encounter God in our own and unique way.
     In truth, conversion and faith both tend to engage us in rather black and white terms. Consider Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3 that to see or experience the kingdom of God (put another way, a personal relationship with God) we must be, as he phrases it, "born again."  To be converted, that is, to exercise faith in Jesus, is a "do or die" experience.  Either Jesus is there or he is not; either we believe in him or we do not: there's no middle ground.  We must let go of what we think we know to find what we do not.  We will not be converted without faith, yet we will not exercise faith unless we believe that we will become someone "new," that is, be converted, on its other side.
     Bottom line, the essence of conversion is a decision to trust.  We trust in someone who sees for what we do not.  We do not need to trust the world; we're already in it.  But as I was observing yesterday in citing Psalm 24, we do need to trust God to give the world meaning.  So it is very black and white.  We either believe what we see, or we believe that which sees what we see.  We see in a box.  God does not.
     The faith of conversion is never what we plan.