faith

faith
That can move a mountain.

Today I was talking to my family about faith. Faith so powerful, it does extra-ordinary things. Things that blow us away, when we take the time to think about them.

Talking about faith, most people quickly flip the switch to some churchy religeon thing. We quickly shut our brain off and say something like “I don’t believe all that faith stuff, I just believe in hard work, and grit and making things happen.”

Good, then we are talking about the same thing.

The problem seems to be, most people who talk about faith are about also about the stuff that makes us uncomfortable, prayer, God, etc etc etc. and that is the exact place I want to dance a line between. Part of that line, says the the church types don’t actually understand faith, although they talk a lot about it. And part of that line, says the rest of us don’t understand faith much either, because the spiritual types turn us off of it, with their judgmental stance.

Lets grab a bit from both worlds ok?

First, I’ll start off with an uncomfortable place for many of you, for me too – a 2000 year old spiritual teaching by the big J man himself – Jesus – yay, this is fun!!!

Well, Jesus said:

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

And you say “ I don’t believe in all that faith stuff, I just believe in hard work and grit”

And I want to say – exactly – they are the SAME THING!!!

Lets start with a question:

What is faith?

Let us start with the simplest answer we can find:

1faith noun \ˈfāth\

: strong belief or trust in someone or something

lets hang with this: strong belief or trust in someone (actually, we wont go any deeper or further – this is IT)

What is faith?

I’ll meet you at the coffee shop at 12:30

Ok

(you both show up)

~this is faith

We would like to order some steel from you for a project

How much

20 feet of ¼ thick by 4” wide delivered by ________

Ok we can meet that timeline, this is our price $_________

Ok, sign here

(you both follow through)

~this is faith

So this trailer is road worthy

Yep, never had a problem.

Awesome will you take $12,000 for it

Make it $12,500 and you have a deal

Done

(you pay, and the trailer works awesome)

~this is faith

Can I trust you with a secret?

Yes

I’m worried about my marriage and I don’t know what to do

Ok, want to sit down and talk?

I don’t want anyone to find out?

No problem I wont tell a soul

Ok, can you meet me tonight?

Sure

(you both show up and you keep your word)

~this is faith

so back to our question, what is faith?

First – faith is a thought. How big is a thought? Well, thoughts are really really hard to measure, so hard, that we can’t even tell where they originate from. In the brain a thought could excite several regions of the brain, or only a few. Brain cells, (like most cells) are really really tiny, so, ya, mustard seed sized – really really really tiny. First thing, faith, is a thought, but faith isn’t just a thought, faith is a communicated thought. It is a thought that we express and listen to. how big is listening (again, happens in the brain, in the cells - really really tiny)

To be honest- the person, who sits in front of the mountain, and prays “God, move this mountain, I have faith that you will move this mountain.” Is just about as close as you can get to clearly insane.

There are other elements in each of our examples that help us understand faith.

Faith is a thought, that is communicated, but that isn’t all faith is. Faith is also about a goal (or stated outcome) and ACTION if we want to go back to the airy fairy old scriptures….. (again 2000 years old) “faith without action is dead.” Pray to the mountain (or God) and do nothing, and… yep, you are insane.

What if I could give you an example of faith, that moved a mountain? Maybe, that Jesus guy wouldn’t sound so freakish, and that other guy Mr “faith without action is dead” would be so insane. (Oh, BTW the person who just prays and does nothing – ya, still close to insane)

Well, here you go:

These are pictures of the Lafarge plant at Exshaw, near Banff Alberta, over the last 100 years, people set a goal, broke that goal down into pieces, built a factory, communicated a whole lot, and literally MOVED A MOUNTAIN. Bit by bit, pebble my pebble. In FACT pieces of this mountain, probably are in the foundation of your house (or your church – LOL)

Faith

Faith, is a thought, that is communicated, about a goal, that requires action.

Action – faith without works is dead ~James

Now this just got super practical, and how similar is it to: “I don’t believe all that faith stuff, I just believe in hard work, and grit and making things happen.” But the person that said that, put their faith in someone. Someone, said they would pay for the grit and the hard work.

Faith, is a thought, that is communicated, about a goal, that requires action – sometimes (most times) MASSIVE amounts of action.

You buy a new truck

~faith

You drive the truck down the highway

~faith

in fact, there are SO MANY faith steps – it boggles the mind, from the people that got the raw material OUT OF THE GROUND to the people that manufactured it (think of all the people and the steps, to the people who shipped it, to the people that put it together, to the people that delivered the truck on time, to the people that paid for each and every single transaction in the whole ordeal, to the person that stays on their side of a little white line on the highway….. faith.

Today, you will put your faith in someone else a hundred if not thousands and thousands of times, become aware of it. Be thankful for it. Live in state of bliss and gratitude for all the things going correctly in your world. All the things conspiring together to give you (with 99% accuracy) what you want, when you want it….

Faith - Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” ~Jesus

There is one more person, you can place your faith in, place your faith in yourself, for the last 20 days, I have looked out across the driveway, and said to an old house - "come down" then, bit by bit I worked at it.  I had a thought, then I communicated it, I set a goal, "that house will be torn down 'by hand' by October 1st", then I took massive amounts of action. And I will succeed, or get soooo close to my goal it hurts :-)

Think. Communicate. Set goals. Take action. Work towards them - say Yes YES to life, you will prevail, Take massive amounts of action, get ENTHUSIASTIC, You can do it, if you believe you can!!

If you are not getting what you want in this life, try to live by faith, and what is that?

Faith is, a thought, that is communicated, about a goal, that requires massive amounts of action.

~slv2all