There is a way out of this that we can’t quite see now

All hurt has a beginning, middle and end.

In the moments when it life seems on the brink of falling apart, our faith really can walk us through the hard times.

But we have to be willing to reframe our understanding of the word. Because faith one of those loaded terms. Think of all the social, cultural and doctrinal baggage that weighs it down.

Faith has been misused, abused and wholly misunderstood, both in religion and in culture. To the point that we have become allergic to it. It’s a trigger word that causes a legitimate emotional or even physical reaction in people.

And yet, faith is such a beautiful, useful, life giving word. Tillich’s inspiring text on the topic explains that faith, as the ultimate concern, is an act of the total personality. It happens in the center of the personal life and includes all its elements. Faith is not a movement of a special section or a special function of man’s total being, is the most centered act of the human mind.

And that’s merely one way to look at it. There are as many definitions of faith as there are people to have them.

The point is, in our times of suffering, each of us ought to find a way to reintroduce faith to ourselves, to unload the term of its symbolic weight, and to use it to navigate life’s inevitable lows.

Here are a few of my own interpretations of this word, all of which have been useful and soothing to me during times of distress.

Faith is our ability to be where we are and to accept that where we are is where we are supposed to be.

Faith is trusting that there is a tomorrow that can turn it all around.

Faith is training our minds to automatically state the cause of our suffering not permanent, pervasive or personal; it’s not a special misfortune which has come my way, it’s just life doing its thing.

Essentially, faith is an exercise in imagination for me. It’s an invitation to employ my greatest weapon, my creativity, for its highest purpose. Which is to imagine that there is a way out of this pain that I can’t quite see right now.

This brand of faith is one of many tools that equip me to survive the physically debilitating flood of worries that will come rushing in from time to time.

As if to whisper, wow, this things really hard for you right now, but even as tragically insurmountable as the hurdles seem, it’s going to be okay.

Or maybe it’s not. And that’s okay too.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
If you had your own definition of faith in the universe and in your future, how would pain be different?