Faith can be confusing, requiring trust and action in uncertain times, as Kovie Biakolo shows. Just like Rebecca Simon’s Finding God Every Day reveals, faith grows through trust and action. Find out how to hold on to God even in uncertainty below.
“Now faith is the conviction of what we hope for, and the conviction of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1
We all have faith in something – whether it’s God, science, institutions, ideas, and/or our worldviews, we have faith. Faith is often seen as something in the religious domain and has traditionally been so. I identify this background as a person of faith. And being a person of faith, I often find that people believe that faith is strong and secure and straightforward. But in my experience, it doesn’t work that way.
Faith is hard work, as my mother would say. Most people don’t wake up and suddenly have it though I think that can happen through divine intervention. However, faith is a habit and a practice like many things a person can associate. Faith and you must place your trust in the knowledge that something greater than yourself has a role in your destiny. Faith is the acknowledgment that neither you nor any other person or entity is in complete control of everything that happens around you.
However, I grew up with the idea that, “God helps those who help themselves.” It is for this reason that faith is not just a belief, it is a “pie in the sky” feeling. When you have faith, you must also act; sometimes you even have to do it in the dark. When I say darkness I am trying to express that you may not be sure where the action you take will lead. But you have faith that you are called to do something and that you will be led in the right direction.
Faith can be disappointing, at least in the heart of difficulty and uncertainty. If you don’t believe in faith, believe that it is the hardest thing to hold on to when you need it most. Ironically, as has been said, faith is not faith until you hold on to it. And sometimes, you will even think that all is lost. You will think that you have failed and whatever battle you were fighting has come to an end; you will think you are defeated. You will think that your faith has failed.
I can’t speak for anyone else but if I know anything at all, it’s that my faith never fails. In the life card, I may have lost more than I have won in all the things I have tried. But I always felt like a winner when the challenges were over. Because even though I lost something I worked so hard for, and I suffered anyway, and I believed in my heart that I would find it, I found out that what was in store for me was something much bigger than I thought. Faith has allowed me to see things clearly.
I can’t tell you what to believe or who is right and wrong. That’s not even my intention. Faith is a personal journey and in it, you are given a choice about what you believe. But my faith, although it is my own, has made me realize that no one is meant to suffer alone and face challenges alone. Indeed, regardless of what I have experienced or what those close to me have experienced; in my imperfect understanding and fragile faith, I discovered that somehow, somehow, God managed to be exactly and perfectly on time. That is my story of faith so far. The struggle is to remember this the next time I face another struggle, and not to lose faith.
