We Have to Do Our Part
The thing about having faith in Good (or God) is it can feel like a passive experience. There is a lot of talk about surrender and letting go, which sound a lot like doing nothing. It turns out it’s not exactly that simple. We still have to get up, get dressed, go to work or school, be friends or try to make friends, love people, try and fail, succeed, and all that jazz.
Surrender or letting go is more about outcomes. We can be active in our lives without trying to have a stranglehold on what happens next. That’s hard for the faithless, for anyone who struggles with anxiety, fear, trauma, worry, or doubt. Trying to have faith in positive outcomes feels like we’re throwing a lot of Hail Marys at first, when most of us would rather just have a playbook and know what will happen with each and every play.
One thing that seems to help a lot is trying to pay attention to what God (or Good) actually wants for us. Call it signs, call it directives, call it guidance, call it getting hit over the head with the tack hammer of fate, call it whatever you want, faith requires slowing down, a lot of deep breaths (and I mean a lot), and staying occupied while we wait for the Good (or Godly?) path to become clear.
As an aside, I suppose I could’ve used the expression “right path” but that suggests there is a wrong one. And I suppose the premise of having faith in Good (or God) suggests that there is a way to believe in “Bad,” but that is kind of my point - we all seem to be fixated on negative outcomes or worst case scenarios. A lot of us seem to have a lot of faith that things will go wrong or end badly. A major premise in this writing is the argument that if we’re allowed to have complete faith that something terrible will happen, why can’t we have complete faith that something wonderful could occur as well?
But, I digress. Living with faith is not just a state of mind, it’s also a state of being in the world. We want to chose the positive option whenever possible. Lift our peers and people up, rather than put them down. Tell our loved ones the hard truths and then show support when they are willing to face them. Set boundaries for ourselves and with each other. Encourage growth and be good to one another.
The God (or Good) path is not about self-sacrifice or sainthood. It’s more about being Good and doing well. It means making new choices that align with our goals and a positive vision for the future, rather than repeating old patterns or making the same mistakes. It means learning from our lessons, so that we can level up and learn new ones.
The Good (or God) path isn’t always obvious, but fortunately, in this version of faith, there are no wrong answers. We get to keep praying and focusing our energy on better, and we can have faith that’s what the Universe will deliver in return.
For some of us, we might make a lot of Good (or Godly?) decisions and see some positive payoffs pretty quickly. For others, we may resist the BLEEP out of God (or Good), keep hedging our bets, keep entertaining old habits, and only see incremental changes until we get the hang of it. Either way works, the real trick is to keep trying.
Most importantly, the more we try to discern and choose Good (or God) for ourselves and each other, the more God (or Good) will show up in our lives. All it takes, is a little faith.