I'm having difficulty accepting that I should hit a 16 against a 7

[KSOT]

In blackjack of course.

I'm doing it anyway, but damn... it just seems so wrong.

I only have a few safe cards I could snag but if he has anything less than a 10 he's gotta hit and is very likely to bust if the down card ends up being 9, 8, 7, etc...

I swear I had better sucess in those situations when I used to always stand on 16, but hey... I gotta trust those math wizards.

Can anyone explain the reasoning for it to me in simple terms? Why is the huge risk you take hitting a 16 worth it?