Believe

I've been musing this word and the act of the word Believe. I think often it gets overlooked. This one word can heal the sick, tame the wild, make the impossible possible, calm the fear, create great actions, ease the pains, make relationships, stop the loneliness, and so very much more. In short, it can make a person whole and complete. Just to the opposite though, disbelief can accomplish the very opposite.

Just as Faith is believing in something you can't see, touch, smell, or taste, yet acceptance just the same, also is believing. Both are what could be considered blind actions, both are so necessary to a complete life itself. They aren't just an expression, a gift, or a talent... they are not an option but a necessity.

We have what has been termed as Abstract Thought. I watched chicks, quail, and other birds when I had a hatchery that were born with this trait. I tested the birds once using a square feeder. Once one side was out of feed they walked around to the other side and ate the rest. Now looking around showed that they used abstract thought, since they couldn't smell or see other food. They done this out of faith that I wouldn't give them too little food, but they believed that the food was on the other side.

Another example is a horse verses a cow. When the snow comes the cow will look at the white ground covered with snow and assume all the grass has gone away. The cow will literally starve to death if enough time has elapsed. The horse will look at the snow covered ground and paw the snow away to get to the grass. The horse knows that the grass was there and has faith that it is still there, despite it's sudden disappearance.

Now in all fairness to cows we will look at another scenario. If in a burning barn, a horse will panic and actually stay inside and burn to death. The cow on the other hand will manage to locate, if not make, a door in which to escape from. The cow believes in it's own ability to make it out of the barn into safety.

So there we have it. Will Rogers once said something to the effect of Everybody's ignorant, only in different subjects. Now there can be exceptions to the rule on the above two analogies, but we can have both, and indeed, must have. Lack of either one though makes a huge difference and outcome in life. Some are born with it but for the most part we develop it.

Allow me to firmly state though that having strong faith and believing will not cure all worldly sickness. They will not make you monetarily or materially rich. They will not make you a successful, in worldly terms rich person, or protect you from harm. What they will do however is make you rich in the things that count. Provide love and friendship when there is little to be found. Make you strong when you are weak. Comfort you when you are in need. Successful in ways that your life will be complete. There is a catch though. They require constant work.

When you believe in someone else, you lift them into the air. When someone else believes in you, likewise you are lifted up. I must say though that I have little belief in myself, but what I do have belief in, what I believe in, is my family and friends. I also believe that if should that belief go astray that I have a God and a Savior worthy of my belief, should they or I fail. For that matter, should they or I succeed. What I do have though is that I believe that I can believe.

Another good man was buried today. He was 84. I mused about him after the funeral last night, and how his life had been played. It brought to mind Mrs. Harrison, probably the best teacher in the world. My grandfather who I called dad... and so many others. What was it they had that we are lacking today? How did they live out their lives that they were satisfied? What did they know that we don't? Did they have some big secret?

I would like to take Mrs Deane Harrison as an example. Here was a lady who had worked successfully in Broadway in plays. Somehow, at sometime, she felt a calling to teach. Now this was when teaching paid little and there were no teacher's unions. She was making a good living doing what she wanted to do, yet she stopped and came back. She came to this small town, not even on maps back then, and taught. She lived in a pretty big house, small though when compared to the McMansions of today. Eventually she would end up head over the English Dept at the new high school that was large by our standards, small by even medium city standards.

I had her for two classes. Shakespeare and Bible Literature in the late seventies. Here I was, hair down to my belt, beard, and a living for that next party and girl. I was what I would say, a dad's worse nightmare. She never preached to me or turned a blind eye, yet she saw in me something that I did not see in myself. She believed in me. She had faith that somewhere inside was a decent boy, even when I let her down. This lady, along with Ms. Gann and Claiborne, worked with me to make back up my work when I quit school. She called a few times and talked with me until I went back to school. She changed me by her actions. It was then that I learned the power of believing.

So back to my friend. He, like many of the older people lived in what today people would say a starter home, and perhaps the last word of that is one of the other areas we've missed, home. Like so many others that were older that have passed, they lived modest lives. Like so many I have been honored to have been in the company of, they led by example, many without knowing. They believed in others and had faith in other people, but that wasn't the whole story.

All of them had one other thing in common. The believed in God and along with that belief came faith. Not just any God either, but the God... and His son Jesus. Part of the requirements in true belief and faith as a Christian is believing in and having faith or your fellow man. Those who wish to be politically correct can add women there too. Will another person let you down, probably eventually they will at some time. Will God and Jesus let you down? Never. While it will not give you assurance that this journey will be smooth or long, be assured that you will never be alone and that when that journey is over, life begins.

Believing will bring you comfort in times of need and a fulfilling when things inside run low. Believing may not bring you to a big house, but they will ensure you live in a home. It may not bring you a fancy new vehicle, but one that is familiar. Maybe not designer clothes, but beautiful just the same. Believing will actually take away importance in those things that will fade, rot, rust, and decay with time and instead instill in you something that is of real importance, things of real wealth. Love, peace, courage, kindness, and purpose. Believing will get you home one day... this is not home.

I read and hear people all the time who believe in aliens, false gods, fables, and almost everything else. To be perfectly honest I can not for the life of me understand how someone could believe in some beings coming down and seeding the planet, for whatever purpose. Or that we evolved from primordial soup, monkeys, etc, and that we just keep on going. That people believe that a known evil is better than an unknown one. That product A is better than product B. That we are a brain cell in the mind of god? How is it that we have such an easy time believing in false doctrine and trivial things more than we believe that there is a God who believes in us? It just gets too funny sometimes.

As for myself, I don't believe in me alone. I have no faith in myself alone. I do believe in a God who believes in me, even when I fail. A Savior that believes in me enough to give His life that I might live. I have faith in a God that says I'm important, even when I feel insignificant. A Savior that believed in me, even when I doubted Him. Because of that, I believe in me because He believes in me. He believes in you too, even those who don't believe in Him.

You see, for years I believed in me and just me. I had faith in my abilities. I half-hearted believed in in others, and those I did I challenged against my own. I thought back then I was happy, but I think I was just excited, for happiness never lasted for long. I thought I was complete, yet it never lasted. I thought I was successful, yet there was always a conquest yet to be made. I thought I was at peace, yet it seemed I was always at war. I thought I was always full, yet I stayed hungry. Search your heart and see if any of this sounds familiar.

When seeing my body fail me, my mind began to think back. Isn't it strange how it takes a mountain to look back. Funny how it sometimes isn't until our our mortality appears that we set and muse over people in our past. I began to ask myself what they knew that I didn't. What did they want me to know that I was too prideful to learn. What, through their actions and deeds did they convey to me, silently yet with a strong voice. As I had failed myself and my believing in me stopped. As my faith in my abilities were challenged by others and myself, what happened. I let me down along with others than believed in me.

I thought to myself, perhaps they tried to verbally tell me this great secret to a fulfilled life, certainly they displayed it. They were completely unaware I think to just how much they effected me. They were completely unaware just how great they are/were. They believed not in themselves but in God and Jesus that believed in them. Why didn't I get that completely back then? They didn't have it all, or even a more than their share portion of it, but they had enough, they were fulfilled.

It would not be until my fall that I realized just how important I am to God, no more important than anybody else, no less important either, we're all on the same level. I think the biggest difference I never knew is that He wants us ti have faith and belief not only in him, but our fellow man. Think of it if you will of a chain letter. Instead of sending ten people a dollar, you believe in ten people. What would happen if that got started?

So in closing. He believed in you and me even before we were conceived.. And He still does. Like it or not
... He has Faith in you. I know, as long as He is backing us... nothing impossible. If you've given the rest a try, then try this.