Keeping the Faith

Faith is a strange thing.

I say strange because it is not a thing in itself.

Rather, it is always mentioned in reference to something else. To have faith in yourself, in others, in God.

But it is not usually referred to by itself.

This is because faith does not exist by itself. And yet it is the very thing by which we live our lives for.

Having faith, that no matter what happens, things will always work out for the better. Without that which does not exist by itself, we might as well not.

Faith is the very thing that keeps us alive.

You can take away everything in this world. Money. Clothes. Cars. Other people. Either by choice, or by circumstance, or both, they can be taken away.

But faith is something that no one can take away from us.

Unless we let them. Or if not taken away, given away. It is our choice.

And this does happen. People lose faith in themselves. They lose hope for their future, and stopped believing in the good because of the past.

It's ironice that people lose faith because they have faith, because they believe that which has happened will happen again.

If bad things have happened before, they believe that bad things will happen again. If they have been hurt before, they have faith that hurt is only a matter of time.

People don't want to get hurt. And so they stop believing.

And that is OK.

I mean, who wants to get hurt? Despite what I've written about pain, given the choice I don't want to get hurt. I am sure that you don't as well.

What I wrote about pain is that we learn. We learn and understand doing this would lead to that. We learn about ourselves, and more.

But what we must also understand is that just because that is the way things have always been, doesn't mean that it is the way things always will be.

The past does not dictate the future.

Yes. There is always a chance that we will be hurt. Either physically or emotionally (or both), there is always that chance.

But that is all there is to it.

A chance.

And just like there a chance of the bad (getting hurt), there is also a chance of the good.

A chance that we will not be hurt. A chance that good things will happen.

Isn't this chance, the chance to be happy, to be fulfilled, the chance to live our lives worth fighting for? Worth believing in?

If we don't believe that we can be happy, that there is good in life, what is the point?

Will bad things happen if we believe in the good?

Maybe. Maybe not. We will never know. But I believe that we have nothing to lose by having faith.

By believing in the good. In love and happiness. In my friends and in my family.

In myself.

I have faith in all that, and more.

Whatever happens after that...

...just doesn't matter.

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