Everyone, regardless of what they have faith in, pretty much agrees on the definition of faith: faith is the belief in things unseen. For many people, this is faith in God. It's spiritual faith. This is the faith we most often hear about, and this is the most important aspect of faith in my life. But it's not the only kind of faith in the world. When you stop and take a look back at it, everything stems from faith. If we had no faith, we would have no civilization. With no faith, we would have no will to live.
Hear me out on this. It's no secret that life is hard for me right now. I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, and weighty topics have been on my mind of late — things like life; things like grief. But the amazing thing is, the more I dwell on the harsh realities that beat us down every single day, the more optimistic I become about the wonderful possibilities that still remain. And that all comes from one simple thing. Faith.
We all have faith. Christians have faith in a good and merciful God. Atheists have faith in mankind itself and the belief that there is no God. Americans have faith that our laws and rights will protect us from wrongdoing. Starving children in Africa have faith that they will find food tomorrow. Everyone on this planet has faith that we'll wake up in the morning.
Still, sometimes it's hard to keep the faith. How can you keep on believing that things will get better when things seem to keep getting worse and worse? I mean, the definition of lunacy is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. So does faith — the faith that bad things will stop happening when that seems to be all that's around — make us crazy? Or does it just make us human?
Personally, I would be nowhere without my faith in God. Don't get me wrong — I'm not where I should be in my spiritual relationship with Him right now. To be honest, I'm harboring some anger and resentment for all the trials He's giving me and my loved ones at the moment. But that doesn't mean I've stopped believing. On the contrary, it's almost as if my faith is becoming stronger.
Does that sound crazy? Maybe, especially for you "nonbelievers" out there. But think about your faith in relation to other things. Do you lose faith that love is real when your heart is broken? Or do you find that your understanding of love has been multiplied tenfold because of that heartbreak? Do you lose faith in modern medicine when you get a wrong diagnosis or have a bad reaction to a medication? Or do you find yourself looking for better doctors to utilize that modern medicine in a more effective way? And perhaps most telling — do you lose faith in your friends and family when they lie to you or let you down in some way? Or do you keep the faith and give them a second chance (and in some cases, a third, a fourth, a fifth ...)?
Faith isn't easy. But then again, faith is a huge part of life, and we already know that life isn't easy. So why should we expect faith to be any different?
There's a paragraph in one of my favorite books that addresses faith (as it relates to God). The author is talking about tithing and how hard it is to willingly give that 10% of your income to the church when you barely have enough money to pay your bills. At one point, he notes that it would be so much easier to trust God — to have faith — if there was just a little more money to spare. But that's not really faith, is it? That's you trying to figure it all out for yourself.
But try as we might to push it aside, faith is always there. Lord knows I've tried to work my way through these last few months and figure out some way, some plan, to make sense of everything that's happened (if you're curious, I have been utterly unsuccessful). I find peace in that outcome, though, which in turn just breeds more faith. Faith in God; faith in the knowledge that this universe is bigger than me and that I am never going to understand why certain things happen; and faith that, ultimately, it will all be alright.
I just finished reading another book that focuses primarily on faith and friendship and the roles they play in your life. One chapter really stood out to me, and it gives me hope that my faith has yet to be strengthened; trust that my faith will guide me through.
"Our limitation is God's opportunity. When you get all the way to the end of your rope and there isn't anything you can do, that's when God takes over. People think they're in control, but they're not. The truth is, that which must befall thee must befall thee. And that which must pass thee by must pass thee by."
I think that if you really sit down and reflect on the role faith plays in your life, you'll reach the same conclusion (regardless of your views on religion, spirituality, or anything else theological in nature). That no matter what, everything happens for a reason. No matter how bad — no matter how severe the pain — something propels us forward and tells us that it will get better. That is faith. And that is simply what gets us on by.
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