Most of those who know me, know this fact to be true. I think too much. I tend to get into my own head a lot. For most, it is good to take time and think about life and where it’s all heading. I do that all the time. If anything, for me, it would be a better idea to find a way to prevent myself from thinking.

Well, recently I’ve been…thinking. We as humans go through so much in our lives. Good and bad. Granted, some of us have experienced things that we wouldn’t wish on anyone else. Then there are people, like me, that had a fairly boring life but still had demons to fight off. The only way I know to get through it all is by believing that everything will be ok because God is by each and every one of our sides.

As Christians, I think we believe that by just accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will have an easy life. No more problems. No more heartaches. No more worries ever again. Here’s the thing. He never said that life was going to be hunky dory sunshine and rainbows. We are told that things will be easier with God by our side and they are. Trust me…things could be so much worse.

We aren’t the first ones to go through these things either. We are one of many. We each handle adversity differently, but many others have gone through the same things we have. Even in the olden times. Granted, the world has changed a bit since then, but basically the same thing. If you notice though, whether it was in the olden times or something a person is going through now, it all breaks down to one thing. FAITH.

            Faith is defined as complete trust or confidence in someone or something. In the Bible faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1.

“Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

In fact, if we look at all of Hebrews 11, we see so many examples of people in the Old Testament and their faith. From Abel to Noah, to Moses and so many more. The Bible is full of examples. These people had faith in God, and they accomplished so many amazing things. Thing is, not all of them got a happy ending. Life for them was hard and even on their last day they suffered.

“They were put to death by stoning, they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins destitute, persecuted and mistreated- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” –Hebrews 11: 37, 38

            Life is hard. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had a time in our lives where nothing made any sense. Where no matter where we turned it seemed like the wrong answer. Like no matter how much we prayed and pleaded we felt all alone. If you haven’t felt that way…consider yourself lucky. It’s no fun. The hardest part of it all is keeping that childlike faith. The kind of faith we are meant to have. Where the true meaning of faith lives. Believing without seeing.

Believing without seeing…how? I mean, the world we live in is so concrete, isn’t it? We can see, touch, hear, taste and smell almost everything.  We see colors, the oceans, the sky, and the stars. We feel the wind, water, heat, cold. And those things we can’t see, for example, gravity, we can calculate. Things we personally haven’t seen with our own eyes, for example, an angler fish, we believe they exist because others have seen it, captured it, and show it to us.

When did we get like this? As kids, we believed in things that, now as adults, we know do not actually exist. As kids, we were told that Santa Claus was the one bringing us gifts on Christmas. The tooth fairy was the one collecting our teeth and leaving us money. The Easter bunny was the one who hid all the eggs all over the place so we can find them. I believed in all these things at one point in my life. Well, all except the tooth fairy. Since I grew up in a Hispanic home, I was told that a little mouse named Ratoncito Miguel was the one collecting my teeth. My mom even wrote me letters, in his name, so that he would become even more real.

Then came that fateful day where we all find out…it’s not real. None of those things actually exist. Personally, it hurt me more to find out Ratoncito Miguel wasn’t real, more than finding out that Santa wasn’t real. However, it is at this point in time that that innocent way of believing dies. Then anything we come across we question just because what we were told as kids no longer exist. Maybe psychologically that’s why it’s so hard for us to genuinely and wholeheartedly believe in anything. We were told time and time again that something existed and then find out it was all a lie. Now is when doubt enters our world.

Now doubt is defined as a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction. In the Bible, it is not as direct on the definition of doubt as it is with faith. However, you can still find passages that explain what doubt is like. For example, James 1:6-8:

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”

When we don’t know what to believe, we can be easily deceived. This is when we stop listening to what God has to tell us and start listening to what the world tells us… what the devil tells us. We give up. We stop trying or change what we believe to make life easier.

Thing is, we are not allowed to give up. We are told time and time again to have faith and to believe that He will get us through. James 1: 12 says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” My old high school principal once put it simply. Run the race towards the goal to win the prize.

Using that same analogy, running isn’t easy. Runners require a lot of dedication and training. Well, for a Christian, dedication is faith and the training is reading the Bible and praying. It isn’t easy, but as time goes by, it gets easier. Not because we no longer have problems or they get solved within two seconds, but because we have an almighty God by our side walking us through it all. Run the race (pray, read the Bible and be obedient to God) towards the goal (Jesus) to win the prize (eternal life).

From personal experience, I can tell you that I have been through good times and I’ve been through bad times. I’ve had times of plenty and times of famine. I’ve had times of celebration and times of sorrow. Obviously, the good times are great. However, it’s the hard times that have honestly defined who I am today. I know that if life was always easy, I would be an ungrateful little brat. It’s those hard times that have taught me humility. It’s taught me of God’s love and mercy. So, as much as it sucks, I try to be grateful for those bad times because I know that in the end, I will be better for it.

So, I pray that whoever reads this, whatever it is you are going through, know that God is with you. He loves you. He will get you through the hard times. You may have many unanswered questions, but sometimes we don’t get to know all the answers. That’s what trust and faith are for. As long as we believe that He has our best interest in mind everything will be ok, even if things don’t turn out the way we had planned them. Remember this one verse:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11