WHY
CAN'T I
FAITHE?
Does this sound familiar?
”Why do I have to be reminded so much of the basics? Why is it such an intense battle to faithe everyday? Just when I think I have a pattern and maybe I've got it figured out.......Satan finds a way to mess me up....... “
Boy, do I relate to that. It's like hearing my echo. I'm the first to say that faithing is the hardest thing we can do. It is true that there is some action, some faithing, that is easier than most. For instance, Communion, fasting, and tithing are all a lot easier because we planned these things in advance. We took the time to consider our action and then came to a decision.
I certainly count these things as genuine acts of faith. But even my faithfulness to these actions doesn't seem to reduce my feeling that I'm not faithing.
Mostly, I look at my daily life and am saddened by the lack of faithing. My only fingernail grip is when I remind myself that I do take Communion every day, etc. This is not a new thing with me. I guess I've known since the day I truly understood faithing. And I feel that I know exactly, on a practical daily level, how to remedy my failing faithing.
I have often heard Doc say, "Faithing is an act of the will." Well, all acts of will include a decision. Simply speaking, faithing necessitates focusing on the decisions that flood our daily existence. Now that we know that, we can go have fun. NOT!!!
Simplicity doesn't always result in ease. I've always said that the simple things seem to be the hardest to do. Just knowing that we need to focus on each little decision doesn't mean we'll do it.
I bet one could pray every morning that God would give him or her the pause to investigate each decision for the Fear and Faith responses and still cry, in their nighttime prayer, over the fact of all the decisions they missed during the day.
Faithing is hard to do.
When I try to imagine trying to catch all the little decisions of my day, my mind is boggled. Surely that's an impossible task. Perhaps if a person could do a detailed study of their life, and categorize the different types of decisions, a starting point might be arrived at.
I mean, deciding what to have for dinner may be "neutral" enough to put aside. I'm sure that a majority of our daily decisions fall into this "neutral" category. Our money decisions are another matter.
I think that of all the categories that can be recognized, the "it fell out of the sky" category may be the most important and probably the most infrequent. I have always tried to give special attention to those things that "fall out of the sky."
But even in this most important category, I often fail to pause and consider it in a timely manner.
Everything depends on the decision process. If we can just take a few seconds to consider each decision in the light of fear or faith, most of our stress would decrease, while most of our challenges would increase.
It's the fear related decisions that come back to us later on as stress. To be sure, the fear related decision is much less challenging (hard) than the faith related decision.
I think a direct proportion can be seen between the amount of fear and the ease of action. At one end of the Decision spectrum we have Fear. At the other end we have Faith. Underneath the spectrum we have Easy at the Fear end, and Hard at the Faith end.
When Doc talks about the faithing being 90 percent courage, he's making recognition of the hardness. Another way to spell hard is, u-n-k-n-o-w-n. As I have said many times, "No fear, no faithing." That fear is because of the unknown outcome of our decision/action. The easiest way is usually the most predictable. We like to stick to what we know, outcomes we are sure of. So, what's new?
I guess there are no easy answers with God. At least there are no easy answers when it comes to faithing. Even solid knowledge about the mechanics of faithing doesn't supply an answer. Knowledge doesn't always translate into action.
Knowing that the most important things that come our way are those that "fall out of the sky” doesn't mean that we will give them proper consideration before taking action. Just recognizing that our financial decisions are fertile ground for faithing doesn't mean we'll take the time to figure out if our decision is based in fear or faith.
The fact is, one cannot lock down life. One cannot lock down faithing. Frankly, I think God set it up that way.
How can we ever learn to depend on God if we limit our actions to only those things that are predictable? I believe that our Eternal selves will be 100 percent dependent on God. This appears to me to be the end result of our present, faith-to-faith training. We are learning to trust God. The logical end of that process is 100 percent trust.
Maybe all we have to do is train ourselves to always do the Hard thing. I think that would work. That would take a lot of faith. :-)
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