Outta My Way, Mountain!

"For truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." (Matt. 17:20)

When I initially began writing this blog entry, it started out as a dumping ground for my career-search complaints. I think I had written one paragraph before I had to slow down to grab a thesaurus to find a good word that would sum up an idea I was trying to nail down. But the more I struggled to find the perfect word to describe the anxiety I was feeling about my job search, the more the wind left my sails in my mission to write that particulary commentary piece and I soon felt like the whole bundle of anxious ideas were...silly. Something inside told me to calm down. Relax. You're not the only one who's felt like this. You're putting so much pressure on yourself to find the best word to describe your anxiety about applying for a job you know isn't challenging or rewarding enough for you that you've completely lost focus on your blog entry and instead, have begun to panic at not finding the right word. Or maybe you're panicking about feeling feeling panicked. Because doesn't feeling panic mean that your faith is shaky?And isn't faith the whole point? Having the faith to live the life you want? Having the faith to do what your heart and mind and intuition tell you to do instead of following the pack and conforming to what everybody else is doing when you know it's not right for you?
Faith is such a fascinating concept. It fascinates me because it is exactly the opposite of what we learn in school. Faith is a universal law that dictates that we must BELIEVE in things we cannot see in order to be able to see them in the material world. In other words, if you want something, you have to BELIEVE that you already have it; that you've already received it, in order for it to manifest in your life. We know about the physical world. It's the environment we are conscious of that allows us to use our five senses to make decisions. We can see, hear, smell, taste and touch our way through the cognitive processes. But there is another realm that few people ever learn about that has been referred to as the metaphysical plane. This is where the Universal Laws reign. In the physical world, the one we see everyday, we are aware of physical laws like gravity and inertia; however the metaphysical realm, which consists of things that we cannot see but are no less real, is also controlled by Universal Laws such as Faith. The adjective "Universal" denotes that these laws apply throughout the universe, in both the physical and the metaphysical realms. The evidence of Universal Laws is incontrovertible in the physical world because you can always see their results. For example, the Universal Law that dictates that humans are the sum of their thoughts; or in other words, whatever you think about is what you will get more of. And the celebrated inspirational book The Secret which has swept to the top of bestseller lists and garnered praise most notably from Oprah Winfrey, focuses just on this very Universal Law: Whatevery you think about, you will get more of.
The Universal Law of Faith is particularly special to me because it's a law we encounter over and over in everyday life, and it seems so simple to follow, but we humans wrestle with it. The Universal Law of Faith is written repeatedly throughout the Bible. Two of my favorite passages on the subject are: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1) and "When you stand in prayer, believe that you have received that for which you ask" (Mark 11:24).
What makes the concept of faith so amazing to me is that it is the act of believing in something that you cannot see, that makes it visible and puts it in your possession. We are taught in school to believe what we see, as in: "Give it to me, then I'll believe it." But the spiritual world is guided by totally different rules, as in: "Believe it, then you'll have it."
And I struggle with this. It is such a painful process. I wish I could deprogram my brain of all the doubt and unbelief I learned from school, society, and even relatives and other well-intentioned people. But I guess that's what makes faith even more rewarding. It's not only believing in what you can't see, but believing in what you can't see when everyone around you is whispering discouragement, doubts and ridicule into your ear. When people see what you're trying to do and they shake their heads in sad disapproval because you won't "just fall in line" with the crowd. We are obviously meant to be exposed to the doubtful thinking of the material world around us because faith becomes that much more important, like the antidote that cures the illness. If you never fell ill, how could you fully appreciate good health? It follows that if you never experienced doubtful thinking, how could you fully appreciate the rewards of standing strong in faith and believing that the Creator knows exactly what you need and wants so much to give it to you...if only you ask sincerely, and if only you have Faith and Believe.