Faith: Explaining the Inexplicable

by Nate Turnock

When you hear the word faith, what comes to mind? The term is notoriously hard to define.   All of my life I was told to believe in God.  But I never could understand how to have faith.  I saw it as blind action with no rhyme or reason.  Like pushing all your poker chips into one big pot, hoping that your cards are better than the other guy’s.

Faith requires taking chances and making hard decisions.  But it is not picking a course by saying eeny meeny miney mo.  Nor is it connecting to God in prayer, meditation, or reflection on a passage from the Bible. Those are the outward actions of someone who already has faith.

The state of mind that we call faith is hard to describe to one who does not have it. To develop this state of mind, you engage the two opposing forces that interact in you and pull you in opposite directions. Some people call them positive and negative, up and down, right and wrong.  One author called them “the performer” and “the critic.”  I would call them the spirit of God and the influence of Satan.  Whatever their names, they reside in you at every moment.  They motivate your thoughts, words, actions, and emotions. They force you to pick one direction or another.

The negative side places doubt to distract you and bring you down.  Impulses of selfishness, lust, greed and hate, if acted upon, will ultimately lead to death.  I know that this is true.  At times, I have allowed myself to listen to the negative side. I was always striving for more, never satisfied, always tearing myself down.  I called myself stupid when I didn’t get good grades.  I was never strong enough, fast enough, talented enough.

For whatever reason, I branded myself a failure. Thinking this way did not work. It never made me better, stronger, faster or smarter. Those feelings and thoughts still come.  The evil one brought me down and has power to bring me down at any moment if I choose to act on sinful and self-destructive impulses. When I dwell in the dark side of my heart, the darkness only grows.

The positive side works in a similar fashion. Faith starts as a tiny seed, a positive thought, a word, feeling or idea. If dwelt upon, it develops into other thoughts and eventually it becomes a dominant force. This is the state of mind that, over time, becomes the foundation of good character. The seed must be nurtured and allowed to grow.

The best explanation of faith that I have heard comes from an author named Napoleon Hill.  He wrote:

Faith is the eternal elixir that gives life power and action to the impulse of thought.

Faith is the starting point of all the accumulation of riches.

Faith is the basis of all miracles and mysteries that cannot be analyzed by the rules of science.

Faith is the only known antidote to failure.

Faith is the element, the chemical which, when mixed with prayer gives one direct communication with infinite intelligence.

Faith is the only agency through which the cosmic force of infinite intelligence can be harnessed and used.