Hebrews 11:1 - "Faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Alma 32:21 - "If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." The bible dictionary tells us that, “Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot yet see.” As we are all very familiar with, this is the time of year when many of us make commitments to ourselves and for ourselves that we will hopefully work on throughout the coming new year. New Year Resolutions, while often considered simply cliché, I believe there is a principle of faith that resonates from these resolutions. If we didn’t have hope that those resolutions would better our lives would we make them? If we had no faith that we could achieve those resolutions, would we make them? If we didn’t trust ourselves to be committed to the resolutions would we make them? I’m not talking about those resolutions we make simply so we can participate in the conversation around the water cooler. I’m talking about those resolutions that we make in the quiet recesses of our own hearts and on the blank pages of our private journals. If we had no faith would we make those resolutions?
It is my belief that every person on this planet lives by faith to some extent. Whether it is faith that is realized and understood, or not, we all live by faith. Some of us live lives rich with faith and full of joy. While others of us live lives of minimal faith – just enough to stay afloat. Without faith, would we get up in the morning and take on each new day? Each morning we wake up and we hope our day will be good. We hope that positive things will take place to enrich our lives. We don’t know it will be a good day. We don’t know if positive things will take place. We hope. We hope, and consequently that hope becomes faith as we get out of bed and ready ourselves for the day. While many of us will maintain just that amount of faith to live each day there are others who will magnify their faith and empower themselves to succeed each day. It is our choice of course, whether we are aware of it or not, it is our choice to embrace the enriching, God-given power behind faith or to merely settle for the faith that keeps us alive.
While I was serving my LDS mission in Bulgaria, I had the opportunity to teach countless English Lessons. On Fridays and Saturdays our lessons were just that – English lessons – grammar, verbs, nouns, punctuation, etc. On Wednesdays though, we taught English from a gospel perspective. We covered topics ranging from the attributes of God to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The very first lesson I would teach on a new class schedule was a lesson on faith, and one of the tools I used for this particular lesson was a video clip from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ask me later how I ended up showing an Indiana Jones movie on my mission – interesting story but not really relevant). I would show the scene where Indiana (Harrison Ford) is being chased to the edge of a cliff. He looks down and sees that the drop-off is so deep he can’t see the bottom. He has to decide quickly what to do and since he is following a treasure map of sorts he begins to recite some of the directions that are on the map. He gets to one that seems to apply and you hear him say something like, “it takes a leap of faith.” He then steps off of the cliff into nothingness and to his relief his foot comes down on a path that was obscured by an optical illusion. He is then able to make his way across. A careful observation of the Bulgarian video shows an interesting, if not ironic error. The translation into Bulgarian was incorrect. They translated “it takes a leap of faith” into “it takes a leap of fate” on the subtitles. I used this example for two purposes, the first being to demonstrate the difference between the “th” sound and the “t” sound. More importantly and much more to my benefit, this clip also allowed us to have a discussion about the fundamental differences between living a life of faith versus living a life of fate.
When I speak of fate in this fashion I am not referring to divine will, providence or even destiny. I speak of the fate that removes us from our purposes here on earth. The fate that denies us free agency. This fate is the fate that gives us the excuse to give up and turn our back to any light, the fate we use to give reason to our unwillingness to endure, accomplish and even thrive. The other word for this fate is doom.
Due to the difficult history that has encompassed the Balkan penninsula for many hundreds of years, many of the Bulgarian people seem to have developed the perspective that they are where they are in their lives because fate has placed them there. They blame their inability to succeed on others – on the guy down the street, on the government, on their ancestors, on the Turks, on the Greeks, on Russia, on Europe, on the USA. Instead of being survivors; they focus on victim hood. While this is certainly understandable based upon their circumstances, it is also extremely destructive to the motivating forces behind faith. I imagine that this is the case in many countries where oppression has been the default tenant of their societies in the past. For so long they have been told that they will get nowhere in this life. They begin to believe these imprisoning and suffocating thoughts and soon doubt overcomes the light of faith in their lives. Only a few find and realize the power behind believing that a little faith can overcome great obstacles. Those few who do have faith in their lives make great things happen. Many times it leads them outside of Bulgaria to England, Germany, and America, places where people tell each other to dream big. Places where people teach their children that with a little faith they can accomplish anything. Places where they can escape the collective thoughts of those around them that creates a virtual wall of impossibility, and soon becomes difficult to overcome. A place where faith in possibility crushes the fate of despair. And for others, hopefully their faith will give them the strength to become leaders for those who are continually struggling over the power of fate vs. the power of faith.
Occasionally we find ourselves, and those around us, falling victim to the loss of faith in their lives. We begin to believe that it is fate that we are who we are, it is fate that we are where we are and even more discouraging, that we can do nothing about it. Some of us begin to label ourselves as victims of fate. We say, “I’m an addict and I can’t do anything about it” or “I’m unhappy and can’t do anything about it.” We begin to blame things on fate and say things like, “I am who I am and I should just learn to deal with it.” These thoughts and attitudes will eventually lead to nowhere but doubt, hopelessness and even despair.
Instead, we need to be allowing hope to dwell within us at all times and say things like, “I might have addiction problems now but I have faith that I can change that” or “I am happy because I have faith that I can change my life.” Instead of being victims of our fate we become survivors, through faith. We are no longer victims of anything but survivors of everything. I’m not a victim of depression, I’m a survivor of depression. We will not be victims of a bad economy, we will be survivors of a bad economy. We will not be victims of our trials but survivors of them. We can apply this attitude to anything we might have to endure in our lives and we will thrive by doing so.
Now, let me take this a step further so that you don’t misinterpret what I’m trying to say. While we are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the decision to change our lives it is not by our own power that we have the ability to do so. Everything we have comes from God, from the food we eat, to the homes we live in, to the talents we possess; every bit of it originates from our creator. This includes the faith that moves us to daily action. In Ephesians 2: 8-9 we read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Once we realize that the power of Faith in our lives is a gift from our loving Heavenly Father our power to change our own lives for the better will be exponentially greater than trying to do it alone. Faith also means placing our trust in the right source. Alma 57:27 – “Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; their minds are young, and their minds are firm and they do put their trust in God continually.” Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thee for good.”
Then comes the realization that the gift spoken of in Ephesians 2: 8-9 is the gift of God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The gift of Christ in our lives gives us the power to increase our Faith through Him, by Him, and even in Him. The sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of Faith and the power to change. Without the Atonement of Jesus Christ allowing mankind to be redeemed, of all sin and iniquity, there would be nothing but useless fate left to consume us. When we have the courage to step out of the darkness and into the light it is at that moment when we are liberated from all doubt, all fear, all distress and we are filled with the mighty power of God, even the power of Faith.
-Phil Ellsworth
