Reader’s Choice: Maintaining Faith

Once again, I’d like to say a quick thank you to @Unkle_Willi on Twitter for giving me a good topic to touch on today. Follow him. He’s super dope.

Faith has steadily become more of an important topic in my life. As my writing has evolved and I matured, everything has started to trend back to God. My relationships with family, friends, loved ones, academics, work, and even myself. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an evaluation of my values and how that connects to my leadership development. It all came back to God.

My professor wrote me back about how proud he was that my values shone through. He even included a bible verse for me:

Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

I decided a few years ago that as the world makes faith seem foolish, I must hold on. I have looked at friends that have equated God to, “some big douche bag in the sky”. There was a time when I was offended by the trolls online and in person, but I continued to mature. I realized that God was never the enemy and I started to feel pity for their pain. 

This is not towards the people who believe in something else or haven’t decided yet. This isn’t even towards the people that choose to be atheist and are at peace with their own decisions. This was to the haters, the people that have something so fundamentally against religion that they go out of their way to belittle others. I pity them.

My growth in Christ has given me a level of peace and freedom I never expected. I have let go of harmful situations and walked into plenty blessings. I will never use my faith as a weapon. I can only share my views and prays that something takes root. If it doesn’t, I am fine because I’ve shared my faith.

I believe maintaining faith is this world centers on the concept of being in this world but not of it. God has blessed every person, believer and non-believer, with a gift. Everyday that you wake up, you have a chance to bring some love and light to the world. My personal worldview has evolved to clear understanding that everything isn’t for everybody.

Understanding that we all have our own paths, sharing the blessings we have received, and being open to questions and inquiry has smoothed my path. I have been able to bring more faith back to the world and the inherent goodness of people. That  is not to say I am perfect in any way, but the growing peace in my heart allows me to strive to be better daily.

I have been able to proudly say I believe in Christ the same way some people are proud of what they do for a living. Maintaining that faith all depends on allowing others the autonomy to make their own choices and remaining confident in yours. It’s not easy but it definitely makes a difference.