Well, guess what I found on the carpet this morning? Yup, a BIG ugly spider! I was given the opportunity to practice what I preached by transporting the spider outdoors. FYI, I am not one of those people who pick up insects in their hands and think that they are fascinating, so saving the spider was not particularly pleasant for me

I’ve heard that Einstein was a fairly smart guy What do you think… is “coincidence God’s way of remaining anonymous”?

Ok, so how do we get this faith? I am sure many of you already have a faith of some sort in a Higher Power or God. From my experience, faith takes work. Maybe you need to put more effort into your religious or spiritual practice. I cannot tell you what to believe and no one can have faith for you. I have included some helpful links on this site that may aid you in your search for faith or help you to strengthen yours.

I believe that faith in God is a personal experience. Being told to believe in a specific God and follow a particular set of rules, without asking why, never worked for me. Discovering a Higher Power of my own understanding and later finding a religion that accepted my beliefs and inspired me to improve and grow spiritually… now that worked for me. My faith has changed through the years, and I allow it to change and progress. My belief in a Higher Power today is much different than it was ten years ago. I do not allow myself not to believe. If my belief system is no longer working, I need to find another one. I cannot afford not to have faith in God, for all of the above reasons.

I will offer one example of a type of belief in a Higher Power that I would imagine could work for many. Let’s say that you don’t believe in a God Almighty, Jesus or The Holy Trinity and you don’t know where else to turn. Surely you can agree that you are not God and that Something created, caused or is in some way responsible for all that is… this world, this solar system, this universe and so on. We’re here right, the earth and beyond? Let’s not waste time trying to figure out how everything was created but just know that it was and that there is some Force or Power that is the cause. I am not saying that this Force need be a God in your image or that It needs to hear your prayers or even that It cares what happens down here. I am just saying that there is some type of Universal Force that started everything and keeps everything going. Maybe it’s purely scientific. This is just one approach that may help some of you.

You may be thinking…so if I believe in this Universal Force example, what exactly am I having faith in? Who do I pray to? Who is going to answer my prayers? Well, in the example above I offered a different faith approach to that of the standard God Almighty. This method of faith varies in the sense that you would not be expecting to have your prayers answered in the traditional sense. You would be praying to relieve yourself of self, to let go of your wants and desires, to let go of the control, which you don’t actually have anyway. You would be having faith in what is, understanding that things just happen and they are out of your control, so why not accept? You need not be confused about what sort of God would allow all the bad in the world to occur because your faith is in the way things are, there wouldn’t be one God pulling the strings. You just need to know that there is something more powerful than you and you can trust that Force to do what It’s going to do, so why not just let go to It?

I’m not telling you that your belief in God or a Higher Power must be this way or that this form of faith is right and yours is wrong. I am simply offering it as an option, an alternative to aid those who are not content with their current faith in God or who are seeking another way, for whatever reason.

Perhaps you already have a strong faith in God, practice an organized religion and rely on that God for support. Or maybe you were raised Catholic, Protestant or Jewish but no longer connect to such a belief system and don’t see another way. Maybe you used to have a strong faith in God but for various reasons, lost that faith or are angry at God. Or maybe you never believed in a Higher Power at all. Whatever your belief is or isn’t, as long as you are not harming others, I do not pass judgment. There are those who do judge other’s beliefs and believe that their way is the only way and everyone else is dammed. Thank God this is my blog and I have sole comment moderation power so no one else here will need to read any judging

Let me explain why it is so important to have faith in a Higher Power or God. When there is ultimate faith, there can be no fear. Since we’re all human beings, we probably will never experience constant, unwavering faith so, there will be fears. We have fear, whether we recognize it or not. I’m guessing that most people are often afraid and don’t realize it. Many times fear presents itself subtly and shows itself through our shortcomings or character flaws. It shows itself in how we react, cope and handle life’s everyday situations. When I am not right with my faith, I do not roll with life’s everyday occurrences. I fight more and accept less. It could be something rather insignificant such as, I have to wait in line at the store or someone cuts me off on the road or the TV goes out…well, that’s not insignificant When I am right spiritually, I accept life as it comes much easier than when my spiritual condition is suffering.

As I mentioned, many of our shortcomings are fear based. So, the less faith we have, the more fear we have. The more fear we have, the more faults we have. The more faults we have, the more difficult it is to be in our own bodies and for others to be around us.

If we have faith in a Greater Power, we will trust what is and what will be. We will not fear the way life unfolds, even when life doesn’t go our way. We will have faith that everything is happening the way it is supposed to happen or we will simply be able to accept the way it is. This trust translates to acceptance and when we accept, there is peace. When there is peace, there is happiness. Make sense?

In regards to fear and shortcomings, the same principles apply. The more faith we have, the less fear we have. The less fear we have, the fewer faults we have. The fewer faults we have, the more peaceful we become. The more peaceful we are, the happier we are. Simple, right?

This will conclude Part I of this post. See Get Faith for the conclusion.