Faith
Is known as complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
Recently I’ve had cause to doubt mine. Doubt what I’m doing and what I believe because what I wanted to show up, just didn’t.
What did I do then? Immediately Lose my faith in all things good and wonderful and feel miserable and ripped off. The challenge for me was in the allowing of it, allowing myself to feel the sadness, the doubt, the unfairness of it all, and then try to make sense of it.
Faith took a back seat for a while, and it took me a few days before I let it climb over into the front, and strap in next to me.We all, and I mean all, have times and situations in our lives where we think FFS, what else can be thrown at us. How many more things do we have to endure before we feel we’ve done our time, clocked up our miles and it’s someone else’s turn. Perhaps it is exactly at that time that faith needs to be accepted as part of who we are and acknowledged for just that.
Maintaining faith is a challenge. it’s not linear or straightforward. Our lives don’t move in a focused manner towards the finish line, with people cheering us on, water and snacks at the ready. It’s more like traversing the Milford Track, up lots of hills, with ever rising rivers to challenge us when we least expect them.
A way through is often just that – through. There are no first-class tickets, we’re all equal and we’re all going to experience a lack of faith in our lives. For some of us, who need to learn the same thing over and over, we will have this happen many times.
God doesn’t have exclusive rights to faith, it’s found in lots of things; Angels, Buddha or even your partner. Faith’s key objectives includes having us disappointed, let down, and wanting to give up. Faith also requires us not giving up, because that’s not how we were designed. Maybe in the scheme of things we are meant to falter, doubt who we are, throw our hands up in the air, so we can learn.
As we’ve all come to realise if life is going smoothly, we don’t tend to learn any meaningful lessons. There is no growth. We seem to need the real challenges before we face into ourselves and transcend the hardships.
No one worth admiring has had an easy time of it. No one. We may judge their lives from the outside, but we don’t know all the challenges they faced, or the hardships they’ve needed to overcome, to get to where they are in their lives. They are wiser and more of something because of the struggle and the overcoming.
I had the pleasure of spending time with friends over the weekend, who some time ago, had every reason to lose faith in their world. They carried on, chose to accept what was and make the best of it. They now have cause to celebrate that faith, as things did work out, the concerns they had fell away, and though it took time, life began to feel good again. I honour them both in their courage and their faith. It got me to thinking;
Faith, hope and love
Although we need them all
What are we without faith