You can fill in the blank with whatever profanity you feel, just like Madlibs.

Lately, I have been preoccupied with the perils of confusing self-improvement, therapy, or the pursuit of happiness with attempts to become better or more pure. 

Faith is self-reinforcing. A little bit goes a long way. Just a tiny bit with an open mind and a crazy heart willing to believe and we start seeing Good (or God) everywhere.

The crux of the issue when it comes to setting boundaries and why people without faith are often SO bad at this is because we don’t actually know who we are, what we want, what we need, and why we deserve it. 

If there can be 10 different kinds of Cheerios these days, why can’t we also have a faith that is tailor-made for each of us and helps us believe in better? 

God is not the owner of a convenience store ready and available to satisfy our immediate desires. When making a request of Good, God, or humanity, we have to let them mull over the request, we have to let Good (or God) work in their hearts and minds, and see what happens.

Faith is really very simple. Do we believe in Good (or God) or not? Are we willing to act as if we do for an hour, a day, a week, a month and see what happens? That’s kind of all it takes as a starting point.

Sometimes the Universe sets us up to fail, and that is really BLEEPING annoying.

Faith isn’t really about purity, it’s about protection for the hero on our journey. 

I will acknowledge to any cynics out there that this could very well just be because I am consciously or unconsciously reframing circumstances, situations, and outcomes in my own brain and then just attributing them to a higher Good (or God) and in reality nothing mystical is happening, but WHO CARES? Seriously, who cares?

Never before had I considered that the time I have spent wishing I was elsewhere or believing that my life should be different has been a way to avoid myself. It has been an expression of my own lack of self-acceptance. 

What happens if we choose faith first? What happens if we decide to believe we might be worthy, then start doing the work? 

One of the traps we all fall into is trying to get life right. There are a whole lot of shoulds in a miserable person’s life… Should we all try to be decent human beings? Sure, yes, of course. Are we all going to make mistakes? Most definitely. Is anyone living a perfect life? Nope, not a single person on the planet.

The important part is allowing ourselves the opportunity to have faith in its simplest form, which is just to say a prayer no matter where we are, what we’re doing, right in the here and now when we need help.

There is something about trying out faith that is similar to the experience of going to the movies… We have to let the story be the story, no matter how magical or dumb it is.

Life can be so hard. And it turns out having faith might actually be incredibly easy. 

Ugh, how annoying.

I am less apt to criticize others these days, and I’m not exactly sure why. It may just be as simple as “God is working in my heart” but that may not be enough for all you cynics out there.

There is something about the support of Good or God that makes us more capable of God or Good in action, which is Love. Love is an expression of Good. It is a byproduct of having faith. As we work to have faith in Good or God, we become willing to extend that same sentiment to other people, having faith in them, in ourselves, and whatever lies between us.

I am starting to suspect that many people go through life without choosing a purpose. I use the word choosing because that’s actually what happens. We don’t find a purpose. We don’t find meaning in our lives. I think we have to choose it.

Whether it’s just positive thinking, a shift in outlook, or actual spiritual works happening around me doesn’t really matter to me. I am enjoying it either way.