Finding faith in trying times

A lot of people are struggling today for all kinds of reasons. I'm one of them. It's tough out here. What keeps me going with a relatively positive attitude is my faith ... and what I put my faith in.

This issue of faith has come up in dealing with all kinds of people that are just freaking out because what they put their faith in has horribly let them down. Financially, people who put their faith in the equity of their property, investment portfolios and venture capital are high and dry. People who put their faith in the government to bail them out or protect their rights are sorely disappointed. People who put their faith in relationships are quietly resentful because those friends, family and partners are just as deep in the hole as they are.

Relatively intelligent people are becoming difficult to deal with because the object of their faith. They are unreasonable in their requests and expectations of others. They are angry almost all the time. They can't consider options or alternative directions. What's more, they don't want to change their lifestyles because it's the only source of consistency in their lives. That intransigence only increases the anxiety as the try to hold on to whatever is left.

So how does one cope? Let's really piss you off with an adage: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

My wife and I have been discussing the issue of faith as we deal with our own personal disasters. In short, business sucks. Money is not just tight it's non existent. We have no reserves and used all retirement funds up in the past three years just to stay current. We have no health insurance, the cars need repair, we're borrowing a few bucks from friends and family and ... oh yeah... the water heater started leaking today.

And yet, in all the stress, the hurt and the anger, we know we are going to be OK. We don't know how it's going to happen, we don't know when it is going to happen, but something good is coming. How do we know? Because we've been through this before, maybe not as badly, but nonetheless we remember bad times and remember how what we put our faith in always comes through.

What is it that can give that kind of faith in? Well, you need to figure that out for yourself but I can give you some hints.

First, don't look for it in yourself and your own abilities. You will always, eventually, let yourself down. Your strength needs supplementation from some other source. Second, that source is not going to be in any other person or institution because all of those things are run by people with the same weaknesses you have.

What you have to look for is something outside of this earthly paradigm, and not something that requires you to qualify for support by your own efforts. That source has to be unequivocal.

Now you might be wondering what this has to do with lemonade. We all know the analogy. Lemons are sour. Sometimes a little bitter. That sounds like a lot of our life experience right now. You have to add sugar to counteract the bitterness. That's the faith you bring to the situation. You can make sugar from various sources and that's the decisions you make. But water is readily available and it is that medium, provided in large quantities compared the lemons and sugar, that makes the outcome acceptable. We don't control that source of water, but whatever happens, it's best to make sure the water is unadulterated, the real stuff.

I have to keep telling myself this. Whenever I try to find a focus for my faith that is anything but that unadulterated, unequivocal, readily available source of hope, I get really anxious and make bad decisions. So I'm trying to stick with a very simple recipe for life lemonade. I highly recommend it.