Man of Faith

This year has been an interesting one so far. Without getting into too many details let’s just say that things have been good, but they have also been hard. A long time ago I accepted that no matter what I do in my life there are going to be hard things that will happen to me, and that I am going to have to do my best to endure and have a positive attitude about them. But for some reason this year I felt that my hardships seemed to weigh me down more than usual. Whether it was financial struggles, my wife's constant sickness, confusion about career paths, or the spiritual battles I have faced, things seemed to be a little more difficult than usual. I felt more discouraged, and more distracted than normal. I doubted and complained more, and I felt that I didn't have as much hope. I've experienced these feeling at various moments through out my life, but many times this year they seemed to linger more than usual. 

(To help paint the picture, for anyone who's read or seen Harry Potter I kind of felt like how Harry feels in the Order of the Phoenix)

After a lot pondering I felt as though my faith in things was beginning to dwindle. Not only my faith in my religious beliefs, but also faith in other things as well. I've always considered faith as the belief or trust in something that leads to action. Faith, is one of the most basic principles in life, and it seemed to be falling out of my grasp.

As I started to recognize that faith was missing from my life I also started watching the TV show Lost (which has become one of my favorite new shows).

(Once again I am going to use another pop culture reference because that's what I do, I watch movies and TV and think of how I can apply it to my life. I think that's really just my way of justifying watching so many movies.)

Lost is about a group of strangers that are abandoned on a mysterious island, and the show chronicles their efforts to try and get off the island. As I watched it there was one character, John Locke, that was really interesting to me. If there was one characteristic that defined John Locke it would be his faith, and his belief that he had a purpose on the island. He was an ordinary man, who had experienced a very hard and sad life. When he first landed on the island he had an experience that changed him. It caused him to believe that there was a bigger purpose to him being on the island. Most of the people around him doubted him, and thought he was crazy, but he didn't let that stop him. He went out and tried to discover the mysteries that the island held. He exercised his faith, but many times he ended up failing which caused him to doubt again. Then something else would happen that would renew his faith, and give him determination to move forward again.

Locke made a lot of mistakes along the way in developing his faith, but it always made him stronger person. In the end he was never really able to fully understand the full secrets of the island, but he always received the answers he needed at the time he needed them.

Life is so much like being lost on an island with no really direction or purpose. Just as John Locke and the other characters were all lost on the island, we in sense are all lost here on earth. We are trying to finding purpose, understanding, and meaning to everything. We have experiences that lead us to either accept faith or deny it, and most of it depends on our attitude. Just like they don’t find answers to everything that happens around them, we too won’t have answers to every question, but we can find answers to the most important ones, and that is where faith comes in.

After watching this show, and through a few other experiences, I realized that I was lacking the first step of faith. Instead of believing I had been entertaining thoughts of doubt, disbelief, and discouragement. I was letting those moments of despair determine the outcome of my life, rather than believing in the things I knew and exercising my faith to determine my own outcomes.

Since this experience I have made a resolve that I would try and live as a Man of Faith. One who believes in and trusts in things I know and feel to be true. One who tries to avoid doubt, discouragement, distraction, disobedience, and disbelief.

This simple principle of faith (the belief or trust in something that leads to action) has been so pivotal and life changing in my life these last few months. I still struggle with being 100% faithful to the things I know, and like John Locke sometimes I fail. But I have felt a huge difference in my life as I have tried to live by faith, and not just on my own!

No matter what one believes in, faith is essential. I choose to have faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings, but whatever you believe in, have faith in something. I know that faith centered on Christ is what has helped me drive away fear, doubt, confusion, distraction, and discouragement!