Faith

The faith is a concept often attacked by intellectuals and overestimated by religious persons around the world. It is therefore convenient to try to understand more about it and to avoid, when we use it, that our faith is recounted like "blind faith."

According to the dictionary, faith is the reliable confidence in the truth, the validity or seriousness of a person, idea or thing. According to the Bible: It is, then, the faith the certainty of what is waited, the conviction of what is not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

In many situations we have no control, we cannot have control, of the future events, nevertheless we have to take decisions and act as if we knew what is going to happen. The majority of the people who flies in a plane do not know if each one of the elements that allow its correct functioning is in perfect condition, nevertheless they trusts, have faith, that the mechanical team of the air company realized correctly its maintenance task and acts consequently: doing plans on what it is going to do after a normal landing. Without faith, we would paralyze ourselves.

Now then, the faith is not a superstitious hope, the faith is a confidence derived from the truth, or at least, of our understanding of the truths that govern life, in the past, present, and future. In this sense, the faith is individual. Nobody can provide faith to other person, or transfer bottled faith.

Granted, truth is an evasive concept, especially when it is discussed what will happen in the future. As such, it is important to distinguish faith from presumption and from obstinacy. Let's suppose that the weather has been nice (sunny and without wind), but that the weather forecast speaks about a sudden change for the next day to rains and strong winds. Presumption would be to make plans for the next day based on how there has been the weather (sunny, without wind) in the previous days. If instead, we do plan for next day based on how we wish the climate to be, it would be obstinacy. In fact, if we like the snowfalls, we might acquire appropriate clothes, sleds, antifreezes, etc., without considering that it hasn’t snowed for years: obstinacy. On the other hand, faith is to trust that the meteorologists know what they are predicting based on the big number of accurate predictions in the past and to prepare wisely for the rains.

Faith is also to see what nobody else sees and to act consequently. All persons are different and each one visualizes the future in a particular way. Let's take as an example Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. He was an artist, not an inventor or neither a scientist, not even an engineer, but when he listened by chance to a conversation about electricity and electromagnetism, barely in development by then (this happened at the beginning of the XIXth century), he visualized a way of distance communication based on the above mentioned concepts. And even more, confident that it would work, he left his painter's career and dedicated his life to develop his idea. He endured many rejections and 12 years pass by before the American Congress accepted to tend a telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. The result: a way of communication that improved the world. This "vision" beyond the senses, is faith.

The faith is not "a blind jump in the darkness" as Soren Kierkegaard said at the beginning of the XIXth century and whose phrase was simplified later to "faith is blind." The real faith is based on something sure. There are those who say that faith in God is blind, but actually there is so many evidence that points out to the existence of a Creator, that the real blindness would be to have no faith in God. As well as the reason endorses the faith in God, it must endorse any person, work or idea in which we place our faith. It was the scientist Blaise Pascal who said: "The faith says to us with accuracy what the senses do not say, but it doesn’t contradict what the senses see; it is above them, not against them."

It is because the faith that we can trust the future. A study on stress and anxiety carried out by the University of Pennsylvania revealed that 15 per cent of the Americans spend more than half of their time (not counting sleep hours) worrying, either for health, finances, family issues, job security, violence, or relationships. Although a small dose of stress is healthy, we must counter the excess with a good endowment of faith.

Finally, faith must be reflected in our character. The confidence in God, in our family, in our coworkers, will allow us to concentrate on our own responsibilities without worrying excessively on issues out of our control, even if at one particular moment the results are adverse. We must always remember that a good character, with his dose of faith included, produces fruits in due time. And of course we must never forget the source of faith: So faith is by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

Patience

The patience is a feature of character that allows us to go through chaotic situations without collapsing, allows us to educate our children without yelling and allows us to accept our coworkers without getting depressed, among many other things.

It is very interesting to know that the origin of the word patience is the Latin root pati that means to suffer. In fact the participle patiens was introduced into English as patient (in the hospitals) or "the one that suffers." Thus the same word recalls us that the patience implies suffering, though that suffering is accepted with dignity expecting a greater reward that will come, whether with the simple passage of time, with the perseverance, or with the correct activity at the correct moments.

It is important to notice that patience does not mean only to wait until the situation change or until somebody else does what it has to be done. It would be very easy, and a part of the human nature too, to blame someone else for everything negative that happens to us. Patience is the quality of tolerate or support pain or accept difficulties without complaints.

We will review the characteristic of patience in the three circumstances previously mentioned: the simple passing of time, the perseverance and to choose the correct activity at the correct moment.


Patience in slow moments
Have you ever been despaired with the bureaucracy of certain institutions? Have you ever had the "opportunity" to expect long time in lines in order to be attended? Have you ever had to attack your own boredom or that of your children in long trips? Those are all moments in which patience should defeat uneasiness.

We must understand that "bureaucracy" is not evil by itself, in fact was introduced in the administrative science as an element of organization and control. Without that uncomfortable "paperwork", an organization quickly would not know where its incomes came from, how to reproduce a particular process in absence of the actual leader, or how to control the expenses. We must understand then that the bureaucracy has a reason to exist and we must be kind when dealing with her.

Aside from understanding we also can use some creativity in order to convert the waiting moments into useful moments. Carry with you a book or some of your to-do issues (nowadays you can take a computer in a small briefcase) the next time that you have to face the bureaucracy, have to stay in line at the bank, have to expend some time at the waiting room of the doctor, to a trip, etc. Invent games with your children with words, numbers, etc.

The farmers know that the time between the sowing and the crop is not for laziness, it is a time to fertilize, to weed, to fix machinery, etc. One must take advantage of the apparent "dead time".

Patience as perseverance
It is said that Robert Bruce defeated England to free his country Scotland from its yoke, but only after many and painful defeats. He always had the patience to assimilate the blow, to raise a new army, to fight again, to be defeated, to assimilate the blow, etc. A cycle that was not interrupted until Bruce achieved the final victory and could reign in Scotland.

We can apply this, so much to this King, as to a football team that, after been blown out several times, perseveres until achieves the championship, to a student that finally gets his or her degree, or to an employee that finally is recognized as "faithful servant".

Patience as the correct activity at the correct moment.
When "we are at the nick of time" we tend to despair, to irritate, to shout and to generate a terrible chaos without reaching any meaningful results. This is also a moment for the patience. Again, it doesn’t have to be a matter of expecting for a solution to "fall from the sky", though we can pray and ask for divine help, we still also have to face the problem. Gideon, David, and other heroes from the Bible that received God’s help, still had to go to the battle.

The crew members of the Apollo 13th, when their ship suffered damage, could hit the walls with their heads, could curse the mission, could tear their suits and still have the same problem. They had the patience to request aid, to comment the alternatives and to work in a solution that could improve their odds even when time was scurrying among their hands. They did the correct thing with patience.

Source of the patience.
The good news is that to achieve this feature, we have the aid of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22 says that the patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We are not alone, we can pray that God provides us with His Spirit so we can be rewarded with this fabulous feature of Christ’s character: the Patience.