22 – The Science of Faithfeatured

Faith is misunderstood. People say they lose faith like it is something they do not control. Everyone has faith, and everyone has control of their faith. People lose their belief in something, but they do not lose their faith, they just choose to reallocate it. God is much more accessible, and the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are much more achievable when we more consciously understand and harness faith in the lord Jesus Christ.

HOPE, BELIEF AND FAITH

It was on my mission I first heard the expression that faith is an action word. At least that is when it first registered with me.  I realize that faith is also defined in other ways, but it is an action word. Lifelong members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or any religion, will have periods where they question their belief, some will go so far as to step away. Religion can be frustrating and confusing if there is no clear understanding of the difference between belief and faith. And what about hope?

Hope is the engine. It’s the desire to have something more than you have now. Whether you are hoping for something for yourself or another, whether it relates to this life or the next, hope is key. When hope is present, it fuels the quest for something to believe in. 

Belief can be fleeting. We believe in a person one day and do not trust them the next. We are constantly consuming content online and in person and then having to decide what we believe. The longer we apply belief in a person, story or concept, the more we start to make choices based on that belief. Those choices can range from how we feel because of the new belief to words we say and actions we take. Those actions are our faith. Let me show you how this works.

If we watch basketball long enough, we will likely start to develop an admiration for a certain player. Before long, we will see them in commercials promoting a product or hear them on media expressing their political views. We now must decide if we believe what they are saying. If we do believe them, we begin to trust and value their words. The hope inside us starts to feel like that player’s deodorant or point of view will fill a need we feel we have. If we move to the next step and buy that product or align our thinking with their thinking, we have crossed the line from believing them to having faith in them. We are spending money and reciting their words because we believe they have something we want, and we hope that following them will give that to us. Your actions based on what they offer are your way of expressing faith in them.

THE LIGHT BULB

As a Young Single Adult Bishop, I had many conversations in the office with wonderful people trying to help them see that they have control over their faith. If it wasn’t too dark outside, I would turn off the light and sit at my desk. We would talk about how it would be nice to have more light. It feels weird to sit with someone in a dimly lit room – and there was a hope that the feeling would end soon. There was the belief that if I went through the effort of standing up, walking across the room and flipping the switch, the light would come on. But even with that hope and belief, nothing would happen until I got out of the chair and turned the light back on – that action constitutes faith.

In the dark room example, my faith, AKA my belief-led actions, would not constitute faith in Jesus Christ even though this is happening in His building. My faith in this example is based on more human and “Petri dish of life” factors. (See Blog 6) If the breaker is tripped, or the bulb is burned out, or a squirrel chewed through the wiring, or the power bill was not paid, the light will not come on. Although I had hope and a belief, and I even exercised faith enough to get up and flip that switch, nothing happened. Problems in belief arise when we misunderstand what or who we are putting our faith in.

WHEN FAITH DOESN’T WORK

That “flipping the switch” process is a textbook scientific process. The factors for making a light work are well documented. If, once I flip the switch, the light does not turn on, I have three choices.  I either investigate where the process broke down and correct it, find someone to help me get things sorted out so we can be comfortable again, or give up. Flipping the switch is a faith process, which in this case failed. Not giving up when things did not work as planned is being faithful. Or in other words, continuing to take action, either alone or with help, is being faithful. If I stay faithful long enough, I will be rewarded with light again and my hope for light will have become a reality.

Life and repenting – or “changing and growing” (blog 17) – is a textbook spiritual process. The textbook is the scriptures, and the instructors include the Spirit and your bishop or stake president. If we were doing this in Heaven it would be much more straightforward, but we are doing it on Earth, where other people’s agency and Earth’s ups and downs make it more challenging. 

When my life and my repenting process do not work the way I anticipate, I have three choices, I either look into where the process broke down and correct it, find someone to help me get things sorted out, or give up. Living a Christlike life, which includes regular repentance, is also a faith process. Not giving up when things do not work as planned is being faithful. Or in other words, continuing to take action, either alone or with help, is being faithful. If I stay faithful long enough, I will begin to see the rewards through the Spirit.

This is where I have seen many people become disillusioned with the process. We become accustomed to thinking faith in Jesus Christ should always be rewarded as quickly and easily as flipping a light switch. When it comes to much more personal aspects of our lives, like relationships, health and finance, we want an act of faith to, likewise, be quick and easy. After all, we often hear stories from the pulpit of how it worked for that other person.

A PERSPECTIVE YOU MAY NOT HAVE THOUGHT OF

I cannot speak for the Lord, but I will offer you one perspective that may help you as you seek a reason to keep trying as you work through your repentance.

We all know that turning on a faucet or opening a cupboard drawer will not get a light to turn on. While both those actions are helpful for other needs in your life, they are not going to produce the light you are looking for at the time. That is obvious to you now, but you once had to learn the process that would bring light into a room.

Too often we focus on the wrong thing when looking for solutions to our challenges. We are figuratively in the wrong area of the room trying to open the wrong drawer hoping it will alleviate our pressing concern. We are absolutely exercising faith – we are doing something – but we are putting our faith in faucets and drawers and light switches when the solution is found in a perspective so much bigger than what that one room offers.

We look through lenses that are too short-sighted. We lose sight of our eternal nature even as we are seeking help from an Eternal being. Granted, we are wrapped in mortal and sensitive bodies that scream for attention now. We must remember that under that flesh and bone, we are each an individual spirit with royal and eternal heritage. And each of us is here to have good and bad experiences; we are each here to develop wisdom through those experiences. We are each here to develop our faith in Jesus Christ. We actually wanted this!

BE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR FAITH

Do you want your problem to go away? 

• When you look at a problem you are facing, ask yourself if it is something you can change. If it is, apply faith in Jesus Christ (action) by praying for guidance, courage and strength, then move forward on your promptings. Prayer, scriptures and pondering are a good start, then follow the impressions you are feeling that come from the Spirit. (Moroni 7:16) Heavenly Father will always be there to help us change the things we have agency over. Our circumstances will improve, and we will be better people for the experience, but we won’t know how until we take action.

• Ask yourself if your problem is a result of someone else’s choices. Realize that other people have agency and all the prayer in the world for them to change will do nothing if they do not choose to change. Would you want someone else to pray their wants onto you and change you into who they want you to be without your consent? 

You still can – should – pray for them, and you need to treat them in a Christlike way. The prayer may lead to Heavenly Father giving them experiences to help them, but He will not, and actually cannot force that on them. A community’s love and earnest prayers (faith) lead to Alma the Younger having an experience that lead him to change. The most hope lies in teaming your love and prayers with God’s influence. But remember Alma the Younger still had his agency to choose. He could have said no or chosen to disregard the visit (as did Laman and Lemuel many years previous). Your prayers are valuable and worth offering, but if you expect that prayer will be what changes their heart and mind, you might as well be turning on a faucet to get light. 

If your problems come from others, the best application of faith, including prayers and loving interaction, is to ask what you can change in yourself. For example, you can ask Heavenly Father to let you see that individual the way He sees them. That is faith that you will see rewarded, but you won’t know how until you try!

• What if your trials are health-related or of some other nature that seemingly has no foreseeable solution? These can be most heartbreaking. Some struggle for years before finding relief, and for some, it never comes. Prayers, blessings and medical treatments do not cure the body for many people. This is a situation where you must step back out of that room and see the big picture. Our scripture heroes are heroes because they went through hard times. Some of them saw the end of their recorded trials while living, but a great many of them did not. Their stories are valuable to us because, despite their trials, they never quit. They never stopped trying. They never gave up their faith in Jesus Christ.

We call that being faithful. No matter how long things are hard, no matter how hard they are, we keep doing what God wants us to do. There is no promise that it gets fixed by Tuesday or next month, but there is a promise that He will help us today, shape us through the experience, and reward us after this time on Earth is over – if we seek to do it His way. Today’s help may seem small compared to the size of the problem, but it’s a start, and it’s a step toward real growth. If we are willing to work with Him to become who we can become, we will learn and grow so much more than we now know. But we won’t know how until we try!

FAITH PRECEDES THE GROWTH

Faith – AKA your actions – when placed in Jesus Christ, not man, defies math. Like one of those strange math equations that have numbers, letters and weird shapes and somehow offer an outcome or solution. A basketball player’s advice only goes so far, but as you learn to place your faith in Jesus, something hard to explain happens. Your knowledge of things as they really are grows. Your confidence grows exponentially. Then follows the peace that defies understanding. The depth and width of the Gospel blessings are hard to explain – but once you get fully engaged with them you begin to understand.  

Faith has several definitions, but the next time you see that word in writing or hear it from the pulpit, think of it as an action word and look for an action you can apply in your life. What are you hoping for? What do you believe will help achieve it? What is something you can do to exercise faith in a belief you have – or how can you use faith to strengthen a wavering belief?

Remember faith is “not a perfect knowledge” but it is a way to strengthen belief and to validate hope.  And it is a choice – one that is shown with every step taken into uncertainty but fueled by the hope of something better. Boyd K. Packer has said “Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that “leap of faith,” as the philosophers call it. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. “The spirit of man,” as the scripture says, indeed “is the candle of the Lord.” (Prov. 20:27.)”  (“The Candle of the Lord” Ensign Jan 1983) see where God leads you and what He can make of you!

A BEAUTIFUL GIFT

The gift you and I can offer our children, family and friends is to be faithful from this point on. Some may still be hurting because of us. Let’s show them that we choose every day from this day on to live the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To choose to live Christlike principles in all we say and do – as best we can. To do a little better today than we did yesterday. I am inspired by ordinary people who live out the underdog story. Some people wrote us off when we lost our membership, you and I can overcome the stereotype and the doubters!

We can show them that repentance is truly a wonderful gift from our Saviour Jesus Christ, we all need it, we all can do it, and we all can be happier and more at peace because of it!