Faith Has Nothing to Do with Religion

 

When we think of faith, we often think of faith "in God," and this raises a lot of concerns depending on how one thinks of God. Everyone has a preconceived idea of what God is and they accept or reject the notion and so accept or reject faith entirely. But faith has an important role to play since we don't know every facet of reality. How can we do anything at all without some amount of faith that it will be a worthwhile activity in some fashion? Selecting a career is an act of faith. We can research all we want about how much money we might make and perhaps have an idea that we like the work, but an actual location, the actual people and culture, the successes we'll have, the economy, whether or not we'll enjoy it in 10 years, and so much more are entirely unpredictable. We get our degrees and accept our job offers with an extraordinary amount of faith.

When we are children, we only have faith to work on. We cannot do much of anything for ourselves. We must trust that our parents will take care of us, that the schools will teach us effectively to survive in the world, that our bus drivers won't kill us on the way and so on. Faith is an integral part of life from childhood. Most children don't even consider any of these things. Faith guides them—or rather, they are not hindered by fear in their lack of faith. In such a way, faith can be a lack of something just as much as it can be an activity. One can simply refrain from considering all the fearful what-if scenarios, or one can consider them, make calculated decisions where possible, and shrug at the rest, "Whatever happens, I'll work through it!" Both of these scenarios are simply a lack of fear. Faith, then, is the opposite of fear. Fear provides no value whatsoever while faith is the only worthwhile direction.

Now, yes, I do hear the complaints that fear has merit. And to that, I say, "Ha!" and "No, it doesn't." There is a significant difference between shaking in one's boots at the unknown and simply making calculated decisions without fear. Fear only ever makes things worse. There is not a single instance where fear will make us perform better or wiser. Adrenaline, sure, but not fear. Adrenaline can be had without fear. Being startled is also not the same thing as fear. Fear is its own beast. It is the worry, the consternation, and the shutdown of mind and body. It delays our ability to think and it overemphasizes threats. The only time fear could appear useful is when one mistakes coincidence for causation. Acting in fear is never the best course of action.

Now, let's consider faith for a moment before we get too crazy. In the same way that it is not fear that prevents us jumping off a cliff without a parachute, it is not faith to make such a leap. This is simply a stupid thing to do and has nothing to do with faith or fear. Faith is knowing that whatever happens, we will keep our wits about us and do the best with what we've got. Faith is believing that things are possible when we dream they are possible within the constraints of our current understanding. Faith is knowing that if we get moving toward something, we can shift as new information comes rather than getting stuck in analysis paralysis attempting to solve every last problem before anything ever arises. Faith is knowing that we cannot account for absolutely every eventuality and at some point we just need to move. Faith is critical to life and critical to our happiness. Faith is what enables growth to occur whereas fear will keep us stuck. Faith is what enables success where fear keeps us away from action. 

We can only succeed at goals we actually have faith are achievable. Lacking the faith that something is achievable is a sure-fire way to thwart our efforts. This is known psychologically, scientifically, practically, emotionally, and spiritually. We must believe. We must have faith. As to one's God... the value is entirely dependent on their definition. 

A God of wrath who instills fear is not a God I would put faith in for the exact reasons stated above. It is also not faith, per se, but belief. I can believe unicorns exist, but that is not putting my faith in them. Faith has expectations of action. So we cannot have faith in any God beyond what we're expecting such a God to do. A God of love who protects us and directs us is a great thing to put faith in for as much as this leads us to reduce fear. Faith in a God who will let us jump off cliffs, however, is perhaps not a great one to bank on. But one who might protect us if we stumble off a cliff when acting genuinely and authentically? Faith in such a God is a means to remove the fear of pursuing our dreams. Whether or not any of these Gods is real is not the purpose of this article—faith is itself the goal.

All new inventions and bright ideas start with faith that it can be done. Faith is the only reasonable choice. It has nothing to do with religion which can exist without faith. It has nothing to do with belief in the existence of God which can be done without faith. Faith is walking forward with the absence of fear.

To learn more how to apply this knowledge, read Your Mind is Made of Voices or visit us at flow-restoration.com/reflections.html