What faith really is and why its important...

Today I would like to talk about how faith can change everything that you have ever known. Now, I am now talking about religious faith, but I am talking about the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Therefore certain questions arise, why is faith important? How can it be used? And, what are the pros and cons of having or not having faith? These are the first kind of questions that arise when any person is presented with the idea of faith.

I want to start with first identifying what faith even means and how it can be viewed. One of Webster’s dictionary definitions describes it as, “Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on testimony.” The part that I would like to expand on is “[the] reliance on testimony.” Most people today like to think that everything that they think is through inception of their own. They thought of it, therefore they are the first to think of it. Sound brilliant at first, but when you take into view their past experiences, information learned and educational background you then start to realize that the idea that they are expressing is not so original.

I personally learned that everything that I have ever attempted and tested was generated from something in my own past that has influenced that thought in some way or another. Even though there are certain individuals who learn certain material and come up with ideas that are in no way related to their own past, we can still connect their ideas with information that they have viewed or learned which directly or indirectly influences their ideas. There is no such thing as NEW in life. Just about everything has been tried and tested. Maybe not properly, but certainly looked at or considered. This is why faith is important, just as the other part of the above stated definition stated which says, “assent of the mind…of what is declared.” The “approval of the mind” because once the information was received, it was then considered to be true.

I don’t want to get too technical but we can learn from this that it is clear that every human being on this planet has faith in someone or something. Whether it is something that they have seen to be true, or not true, or something that they have learned to be true, or not true. Just the same when a baby experiences a happy moment with a particular family member, the child can have faith that this certain happy experience exists within a certain interaction with this particular individual. Or, when that same baby experiences an sense of something that is unpleasant and therefore has faith that any interaction that that “something” will result in an unpleasant experience. With this information we can now understand, “Why faith is so important.” It literally determines our way of thinking and the actions that we take within our own lives.

Another question that comes up subconsciously is, “can it be changed or controlled?” The simple answer is yes and no. Let’s take the lesson of child A and child B. When child A grows up in a wealthy family this child experiences many good things being surrounded by wealth and happy family members who are always cheerful. Growing up this child can have faith that there are good things to expect when wealth and cheerful people are in their life environment. Similarly, when child B grows up in a wealthy family, this child experiences some good things but instead is surrounded by a family of individuals that constantly argue back and forth about finances and therefore hardly get along. Growing up, this child B now has faith that wealth can turn people into very sour individuals. So the question is, “who is right?” The answer is that both of them are right in their faith in something and someone.

Now that we have a better idea about how much of an influence faith has on our lives, the question we are trying to answer is, “Why is it important?” As stated above the many influences that we experience while growing up from the moment that we are born we can realize that having faith is not only important but we also learn that it is ever present in our lives whether we want to believe it or not and whether we want to accept it or ignore it. Obviously, ignoring it has proven to be costly just as the child who decides to ignore the importance of family because of the inclination to acquire and maintaining wealth therefore deciding that because of this individual’s past experiences, they will never know how to have a happy family life while being wealthy.

This then leads us to the next question, “How can it be used?” Before we can answer this we need to learn and understand one very important point that we have not addressed until now. The lack of any control whatsoever of the individual over the circumstances that surrounded them while everything was playing out before them. This point is “Key” to understand because it is important to know and accept that in order to be able to view and analyze your own faith in whatever it may be, you must acknowledge that there is no control over it. Faith in something that you know is going to happen or not going to happen, is knowing and accepting that you are powerless to the circumstances that are about to take place. Just like child A and B who were powerless to the outcomes of their experiences.

Nevertheless there is a change in this believe, regardless of one’s past experience, that one can make and still remaining powerless to the outcomes of what will result out of the steps and actions that are put in place. At this point, self consciousness becomes a very important tool that one must learn to use in order to make that change. The first step is recognizing what are your thought patterns. For example, “Because I want (blank), I know that if I do (blank), then (blank) will happen.” No matter how we fill in the blanks, we can start to understand what our thinking patterns are. Every time that we take action on something, we can first think about our thinking pattern statement and realize whether what we are about to do actually makes sense to ourselves or not. Then we will also begin to see what our faith is.

So, how can it be utilized? When we realize the “something” or “someone” that we have faith in, we can then decide if continuing to have faith in that someone or something is going to get us the results that we want. Another reality that we need to come to terms with is, “Will we continue to do the same things, while expecting different results?” This can be compared to the definition of insanity, which is “Doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.” If we don’t consider ourselves insane, then we now that our faith is either empty or unfulfilling. Therefore, we need to decide whether or not we actually believe that we can achieve to obtain what we want or if we are hopeless. I think it is safe to say that we all want good things for ourselves and are willing to try anything in order to get it. This begins with choosing to have faith in something or someone that has provided results that we want.