What do you believe and why?

I am in the school of “faith.”That is not unusual for a Christian. Faith is basic to Christianity. Actually, faith is basic to all religions and to life in general.

Every person has the innate ability to believe. Faith –believing – is an active part of our lives. Daily we put our trust and confidence in numerous things or people, without even thinking about it. Often we take faith for granted, rather than stopping to consider what faith really is and what, if anything, it means to our lives.

It is important to know WHAT we believe and determine the focus, or object(s) of our faith.

· As we sit on a chair, we believe in the law of gravity and assume that the chair will support our weight. 

· When we go to sleep at night, we trust that the sun will come up in the morning and we will have a new day. We trust in and depend on the seasons of nature.

· Healthy people, without even thinking, walk and move with no problems and build their lives around a busy schedule that involves physical strength and activity. We take for granted our next breath.

· Many people get up in the morning and go to work at a job, trusting that they will receive a pay check for their hours of work.

We walk through life, rarely considering what we believe, until those things we have trusted fail.

· For example, if, when you were young, you ever had someone pull the chair out from under you just as you sat down, causing you to fall on the floor, you might hesitate before you put your whole weight on a chair.

· You may take food, shelter and a job for granted…until you lose your job. Then you begin to question how you will feed and clothe yourself or your family.
· Your life may be active and routine until you have an accident or are diagnosed with a major health issue which can change your life instantly.

These are some simple examples of how we live our lives believing and expecting certain things to happen.

Our beliefs are influenced by our experience, what our parents or teachers have taught us, what we have seen in the media or in other peoples’ lives, or a convincing friend. Often we are trained to believe certain things. But personal experience can completely and instantly change our belief system and override what we have been taught.

It is absolutely critical for us to understand the power and the responsibility we have to examine and choose what we believe and what we do not believe. We are not to simply accept statements as fact without considering them first. If we do not have a sound foundation for our beliefs, we can be easily influenced by advertisers, politicians, or anyone with a personal agenda who uses emotional and persuasive speech. I personally do not want to be ignorant or manipulated by emotions or human reasoning that sounds good but is not truth. Our choices are our responsibility.

Many people know what they believe, but don’t stop to consider why they believe it. I am examining not only those things I trust or take to be true, but even the foundations for those beliefs. Will you, too, consider the following questions?

· How do I define truth?

· What do I trust, even without taking time to consider? And why? Do I trust in the world systems of government, education, economics?

· Am I easily persuaded by the power of words or emotional appeal? Or do I need to know historical and documented facts before I accept something as truth.

· Does it matter what I believe? Or do I think that sincerity is more important than what I believe?

· What do I believe about people? Are people born basically good? If so, what makes some good and some bad? Which am I, a good person or a bad person? Why?

· Do I trust people? Do I distrust people? If so, what happened to make me distrust or trust them?

· What do I believe about God? Is there a God? If there is, what is He like? How do I know? Where did my concept of God come from? Does it matter?

· What do I believe about myself? Why was I born? Is there a purpose for my life? If there is, how can I find it? If there is not, then what motivates my life each day?

· Am I totally satisfied with my life?

These questions might seem insignificant or a waste of time to even consider. And if you believe that, then you will probably not even read as far as this sentence. Or you may quickly answer the questions without thinking or rethinking them, believing that you already know the complete answer.

These questions are important to some core issues of life and of our world. If you are willing to take a few minutes to consider each one, it could be life-changing. The concept of what we believe and why we believe it are basic to who we are and what we do. As the world changes, and as my understanding grows I periodically revisit the issue of faith and check the basis for my beliefs.

Faith reaches far in to our being and is a defining issue of our lives. Will you open your heart and mind to consider what you believe and why you believe it?

Dear Friends,

It has been far too long since I last wrote of "lessons learned." I am still learning, but the process of life has been very full and, it seems, has squeezed out the time for contemplating and writing.

However, one of the words God has given to me recently, is that I am to be "intentional." That is the opposite of hap-hazard or accidental. It seems that far too often my life goes by and unplanned things happen. The urgent begins to dominate, and the ordinary gets relegated to "later." When "later" comes, I most often don't have energy to deal with it. And when the events of life are not intentional, I wonder where my time has gone, or I spend far too much time and energy cleaning up the messes that have been created as a result of lack of planning or organizing.

Life is not meant to control or overwhelm us. When that happens, it is a sure sign to me that I am not seeking first the Kingdom of God, and that too much of my life is not under His control and blessings. So, with that as background, I am working at being "intentional" about more things in life.

1. My first priority is to daily seek God dilligently. The exciting results of seeking Him are that we find Him, as He has promised. And then, as if finding Him were not enough, He says He rewards those who dilligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Wow. Why would we not seek Him with those two promised results?

2. My second priority in to invest quality time into the lives of my family: of course, my precious husband (we celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary next weekend), my children, and my 5 grandchildren. That has eternal impact and thus, eternal value.

3. God has told me to be "intentional" in relationships. He has given me precious friends who add truth, accountability, joy, encouragement to my life. He has also given me relationships with people who challenge my Godliness, sand off the rough edges, and sometimes simply bring me to my knees. Those all have purpose and I am grateful for each one of them. God has told me to invest time and energy in each relationship that He brings into my life.

4. I am going to try to be intentional about this blog. It will change over the next few months. Rather than writing long epistles, which can be overwhelming and boring...I plan to write shorter blogs that get more quickly to the point! And I plan to write more regularly. There...I said it. It is in print! That would be called COMMITMENT.

The subjects will continue to come from what God is teaching me through the processes of my life...because, as my husband often says, "You can't teach what you don't know and you can't lead where you don't go!" So, I share from my life and all that God is teaching me.

Today, I must go be intentional about preparing hundreds of apricots that are ripe and falling off of our tree. How like God...when He gives us fruit, there is a responsibility that goes with it. So, I am off to be responsible with the gift of apricots!