Faith

This video is from the movie Facing the Giants. It is long, but worth watching. I wanted to start the blog post this week with this video, because it captures how I view faith. In the clip from Facing the Giants, the coach pushes one of the leaders on his football team to accomplish something the player thought was impossible. The player thought he might be able to get to the 50 yard line, but because he listened to his coach he went much further. If the player had not been wearing the blindfold he probably would have given up much earlier than  he did. It is easy to feel defeated when you can see all that stands in your way. That is why faith is so important. Believing without seeing can take you so much farther in life. Whenever you hear about a famous person in history or a story about a hero, one of the most common attributes that they had was perseverance. They stayed strong through hard times, hoping and believing that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. 

When I hear the word faith the first thing that comes to my mind is God. It's the obvious word association choice. However, faith is not limited to believing in God. Don't get me wrong. I think that believing in God is one of the biggest tests of faith. I mean really, we don't get physical proof that we are right until after we die, which means for our whole lives we choose to believe in something that cannot be proven. Scientifically anyway. I see proof of God everyday, but I'm getting off topic. I guess what I am trying to say is that faith does not just pertain to faith in God, but I believe that my faith in God benefits all other aspects of my life. I think that C.S. Lewis said it best (see picture for quote). Through my faith in God, I see everything else. Faith teaches me to trust that even though things don't make sense right now, someday they will. 

This idea of believing when circumstances give no reason to can be carried over to creativity. I think that doubt settles in when we are not given a sign or an answer right away. Everything has to be right now. If we would all take a moment and look back at our pasts, the pasts of our families, or even the pasts of others recorded in history we would see that good things take time. You must believe that the amount of time and effort you put into something will not be for nothing. You have to believe that when you face a problem or a roadblock, there is a reason for it. I recently experienced this in a small way when I was working on creating an online portfolio. I was almost done when the internet went out. I tried saving it but it just kept saying that there was a problem with the connection. So, I let it sit and the next morning I tried to save it again. Luckily the internet was working again, but unfortunately when I went to save my work it asked me to log in again. When I logged in, it erased everything I had done as it refreshed the page. Hours of my time was wasted. I often give the advice to other people that when these sorts of things happen, being frustrated and angry won't change anything. Whether I am furious or apathetic, the truth still remains that I must do it over. I found that when I finished the portfolio the second time it was much nicer. In fact, it made the first one I made look awful. If the internet would not have went down, I would have posted a mediocre portfolio for all to see. Again, the point is that good things take time. I found this quote on Pinterest yesterday and I think it really goes well with what I have been saying. It talks about pushing yourself to be the best you can be and fighting to get where you want to be. You have to work hard, keep you head on straight, and have faith that it will all be worth it.