As is my custom, I turned on the television, pulled back the duvet and began to click to find something to lull me to sleep so I could set the sleep timer to shut it off, hit the lights and squiggle down into the pillows and blankets.
As I clicked, I heard something that grabbed me. I'm more of a spiritual person than a religious person. However, the channel I found myself stopped on was broadcasting some kind of pastor delivering a sermon. My attention had been caught by these words he spoke, a quote from the bible...
"Faith without corresponding actions is dead." James 2:20
This struck me as so correct that it was like a rock to the head. And sometimes the early morning hours are the time when my brain won't let go of a spark of an idea. And though I'd rather have slept, my mind began to spin.
Faith. It's belief, right? Is faith only belief? How about unquestioning belief? That's closer, isn't it?
But anyone can SAY they have faith. Anyone can SAY they believe. How do we know when we personally have true faith?
I thought about faith and its uses. It's not just for spiritual or religious reasons. Faith can apply to any and all life situations. It can apply to a need for a new job. It can apply to getting through illness. It can apply to a desire for a new home. It can apply to true friendship. It can apply to love.
So how do we identify true faith from a simple wish or desire? What's the difference between thinking, "A new home would be nice," and actually having FAITH that you will have a new home? Faith is sometimes putting the cart a tiny bit before the horse because you don't question that it will be. Maybe a sign that you have true faith that you'll soon have a new home is that you have purchased new furniture that overwhelms your current home. "We'll need this new big furniture in the new house because it's going to be a lot bigger. We can live with the crowding for a bit because this is only temporary."
Action. As the quote says. If your actions don't back up what you state you have faith in, then it's really just a wish, isn't it? A desire.
The difference between faith and a desire is action. Of course. Faith means "unquestioning". If you don't question then of course your actions will reflect your belief. Sometimes your actions may seem a bit crazy and out of whack because you have faith in something.
When you have faith that you will manage to save enough for a vacation this year, you'll buy that new swimsuit on a fabulous sale before the plane tickets are in your hand.
When you have faith that you are going to be the winning candidate for the promotion you are vying for at work, you'd maybe buy a few new items for your wardrobe or a new briefcase even before you meet for the interview.
I had faith in the home that I live in now. I suddenly one day started driving around, scoping out homes with For Sale signs on the lawns. I called my real estate agent girl friend and asked her to take me into some homes. There wasn't really anything that fit my needs.
A couple weeks later, I asked her to come and do a contract with me to sell my home and I took the next 5 days to stage my home (the state it was in when it sold wasn't the state I live in). The first day on the market I had two competing offers and one was accepted. I was now essentially homeless with no new home to go to and a closing date to move out of the old house less than a month and a half away.
I continued to look at houses but nothing felt like home. Still, I called and booked movers to move me by July 15, contacted painters to see how their schedules looked and various other odds and ends even though I had no address to give them as yet.
Another couple of weeks later, I was on my way with my girl friend to put in an offer on a house that, though not quite perfect, would serve my needs when she told me about one that had come on the market that day in the same area.
"Let's go see it first," I said. We pulled up and there wasn't even a For Sale sign out yet.
We looked. This was it. This was my home. We went outside and did an outside tour. I stopped a guy hanging around the cul de sac and asked if he was going to be a good neighbour. His daughter and mine immediately began playing together while we talked.
Connie and I went went back to my house and wrote up an offer and hoped the impending proposed closing date less than a month away wouldn't kill the deal. Connie went over and presented it.
Little brat. She didn't phone me from there or on her way back. She made me wait for her to come back to my place. Then she calmly took off her shoes, hung her coat, sat at my table, asked me for tea and only after I'd made it and served it to her did she tell me the offer had been accepted.
I look back and realize I truly had faith in my new home coming to fruition because my actions indicated so. Calling movers and painters before I even had a home to paint, move to or a firm moving date may have seemed a bit out of whack at the time. In the end, they were a couple of the most necessary things that needed doing.
What moves us from desire to faith, or expectation as I realize it may also be termed?
Action.
Sometimes our faith will be tested. Faith is not without its rectum-clenching, gut-wrenching moments. I was tested during the moving example above.
The first offer accepted on the house I was selling fell through. They had a home inspection done and tried to use that as an outrageous bargaining tool to cut the sale price by $15 000. I mean really...who asks a seller to give a buyer $1 500 to install a humidifier from non-existent...among many other things? I told them, "No thank you," and back on the market my house went.
NOW here I was with a new home I was committed to buying and still owning my old home. Maybe I should keep it and rent it out? No. I put it on the market again with faith that it would sell quickly. Again, 6 viewings the first day and 2 competing offers. THAT deal went through without a hitch at 100% of asking price.
From desire to faith. Expectation. Expecting. Those words make me think about a couple who desire to have children. At the desire level, not much action shows. They may or may not make sure they have room for the baby but not much more. Then when they find they are expecting suddenly they are at the faith level and will be until the baby arrives. During the expecting (faith) period, they take lots of action...buying strollers, cribs, diapers, painting the nursery, etc.
I think about the times I've had faith and realize that my faith has brought me through every time. I can't recall a time where my faith was disappointed or misplaced, speed bumps or no.
I started thinking about a trip that I've been desiring for quite some time now. I realized that my actions show me that I have faith even though at times I've felt my faith had left me. I've been preparing steadily for it.
There have been setbacks along the way, but in the same way that I did not hesitate to put my old house on the market, either the first or second times, I look at my waiting suitcase. I envision my passport tucked faithfully into the compartment in my purse. Faith. My faith for this trip is holding strong.
Did you ever do anything that might have seemed crazy to others because you had an unwavering faith in something? What was it? Did it go smoothly the whole way or were there a few speed bumps along the road to your dream? Did those speed bumps shake your faith? Did you ever allow a speed bump to steal your faith?
Do you remember, "Horton Hears a Who" by Dr. Suess?
