Finding Faith
Before you can have faith in everything you first have to find faith in anything.
This might seem like an obvious statement when life is going well, and you are optimistic about what the future holds for you.
But what if that is not the case?
For example, when circumstances in your life continually do not go your way — or you are confronted with a sudden loss so enormous — so random — so unfair — that it shatters your belief in everything, what happens then?
How then do you begin to recover your faith?
Believe it or not, the first step to recovering your faith is simply realizing that you have lost it.
This might sound absurd but it’s not — because how can you ever search for and recover something that you did not realize you were missing in the first place?
The short answer is — you can’t.
Taken from the wrong perspective, this might seem a hopeless situation.
But look at it from a positive point of view and what you immediately realize is just how hopeful it actually is, because it means that anyone can find faith — you simply have to decide “what” you want to have faith in.
The big question, however, that each of us must answer for ourselves is — what is the one thing that you are willing to have faith in at this point in your life?
More and more science and technology would tell us that there is nothing more to life beyond what we see and what we create for ourselves.
But ironically — they too are asking you to “take it on faith” that this is true — they cannot prove that there is nothing more — any more than I can prove that there is.
You might well wonder how it is that I dare to write about faith.
After all I am not a scientist.
Equally, I have no religious training and I do not recommend one religion over another.
But I do highly recommend a few basic ideals that all religions exist to remind us:
- the notion that it is important that we continue to believe that there are things in this world that unite us in unseen ways that we still don’t really understand
- the idea that even very unlikely things have a way of working out when our heart is in the right place
- the fact that the world is always a better place when we are kind to each other
- the truth that we all learn by doing so mistakes are expected and must be forgiven
- the reassurance that we can always return to our faith whenever we feel lost
With practice, having faith in the truth of these simple statements can become the foundation of a belief system so extensive that it can open your mind to the realization that literally anything is possible — we just have to have the courage to believe that it actually can be.
Having faith is not easy, yet it is something in all our lives that we cherish and once we have it, we hold on to it.
Missed last week’s article on Elevating Purpose? Watch it here: https://youtu.be/_CZ4RStuBiQ
