#12 Have Faith

I wanted to take another second to talk about the dark pit that working hard can bring us into. That deep place of drowning, where it feels like we’re going to be there forever. When everything feels like it’s going in the trash and your mind is begging, screaming at you to stop. Maybe you’re tempted to quit on something. Maybe you have that option to walk away and try something easier. Maybe your back’s against the wall and you just want out. Either way, this is your call. Your hour is dawning, and it’s time to rise up. It’s time to gather yourself for war, because this world needs you. You need you. Your time is far from over. So rise up and fight like your life depended on it. Prepare yourself for the plunge into the arms of battle! 

The first thing that we need is faith. Faith that you can, in fact, conquer the territories set before you. You can get out of this mess, no matter how badly the odds seem stacked against you. There is always progress you can make and a future that you can carve. You just might not see it yet. Because the truth is that things will always get better if you just keep pushing forward, pushing through. I know that sounds cliche and it might not hit home for you right now. That’s because we lack the patience to play the long game. We want our quick fixes and we want them right now. 

And I get that. Don’t take me for a naysayer. I have been there, feeling like I’m going to live in this dark, musty dungeon for the rest of my earthly years. That I’ll never truly go anywhere, never march towards anything but an early grave. That’s how it feels sometimes. But those times are when we grow our faith. Faith in the process, faith in the path that we are on, and faith in ourselves to be able to walk it. 

Faith is the voice that says “I may not know where this path will lead me, but I do know that things will once again be good.” It fills in the cracks when we don’t know what’s coming. If hope is forcing yourself to walk the path, faith is declaring where it will eventually lead you. The path may look bleak, it may even look like you’re moving backwards at times, but if you have the faith and the plan, then you will have the means to stay the course and make it somewhere. You just need to keep going. 

Think of faith like a future you, encouraging you to keep up the good work. It gives you the confidence boost to get you fired up and ready for another round, along with the fuel when you feel like you’re out of gas. It lets you take a teenie-tiny peek into the future to see that it’s all worth fighting for, worth keeping it up to get to. It’s just like the bible says in Hebrews 11:1 

“Faith is the confidence in things we hope for, and the assurance in things unseen.”

But I wouldn’t be very honest with you if I pretended that things would one day be all sunshine and rainbows. No, I’m not so naive as to say that everything will be as happy as we would like to plan it to be. That finger you lost probably won’t grow back, that car will probably still be totaled and that pocket knife you lost might never get found. How, then, can we say there’s a happy ending for us when the loss will still be loss? Where is the balance that we can strike on this one? 

Well, for me, it’s in the God that can make all things new. Doesn’t that sound like a boring cliche? Slap that on a bumper sticker, why don’t ya? Nah nah nah, let me explain. When the sad and bad things happen, think of it like a little cut on our spirits. Our souls get hurt when we get burnt, and that ache that we carry with us is like a scar that makes life harder to deal with. But that’s where God comes in and works His magic. I wish I could share with you the in’s and out’s of how that works, but I don’t have the science of the Almighty figured out just yet. All I know is that lots of healing does, in fact, happen when we spend time soaking in the things of God. When we read that bible and spend time with others that are trying to live it out as well, the magic starts to happen. Then we can take off and live our lives as the best versions of ourselves. Not because we’re great, but because He’s great. 

So our stuff might not get new, but our spirits will. And that will give us a brightness that makes life feel like it’s brand-new every day. I know that still sounds a little bit cliche, but I have seen it. The more I live my life like God says I ought to, the more I feel like life tastes better. It’s like I have been living off of microwave mac and cheese forever, when I’ve got a world-class chef slowly teaching me how to cook like a master. It’s a slow process, but one with great, deep rewards for sure. 

So I pray you begin your journey to have the faith to fill in the cracks where your doubts once stood.

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.