Thursday, January 18, 2007
An Intro To Faith
Faith faith faith...what exactly is this "faith"? I mean we hear it in our everyday dialect, yet do we know its actual meaning? Personally, faith appeals to me as a simplistic, independent belief or trust that allows ourselves to depend upon it regardless of our circumstances. When our society says faith, often times it is considered to be something distant from logic or reason and has a lot to do with spirituality or supernaturality. Don Richardson; the author, narrator and one of the main characters of this story leaves us a message that faith is something that we share in order to reach a spiritual parallel with those who do not base their lives on faith. In this particular story, Don refers this to the Sawi culture and their primitive and brutal traditions. Until Don visits them with his wife to spread what he believes will give them the peace that they need, faith to the Sawi is just a meaningless word. Although Don has a strong sense of faith, he only gives them the truth of scripture and leave it to the people themselves to decide how this affects the way they live. In the end the Sawi realize what "faith" does and come to a realization that God is the answer to all of life's questions. While Don Richardson remains a man built by faith, I personally do not see myself made by a lot of faith. Although it may seem bias, I would have to admit that faith is something that we depend on too much, making us overly dependent. But don’t get me wrong, faith is not a negative thing to have; in fact faith does keep us on our feet at times and is the solution to a lot of problems that we confront in our everyday life. Furthermore, I believe that faith does not only have relations with a God or religion but also may be just another form of showing our trust or reliability on something or someone. I leave this post with the message that we need to understand that faith's boundaries are undetermined thus, something that we all seem to have.
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7 comments:
yes I agree with you in that people often rely on faith, but I don't think all people who have faith in God rely "too much" on their faith to solve their problems, and I think faith becomes a problem for a person when the person relies on faith alone. I like the idea that faith not only connect us with God but also with other things, but it would have been better if you expanded a little more on it.
who is snowboard? i am so lazy to click...
A bit pessimistic but nonetheless a meaninful post. True, we always hear the word faith but do we really know what it means and if so do we actually "use" it. It's a subject that really delves into your heart and forces you to think about God and the people you love. i like how you mentioned how it wasn't up to Don for the Sawi to put their faith in God, but themselves. After one Sawi saw how God protected Don and his wife and kid from the crocs, he finally put his trust in God and became a believer. EVen though it's hard for many non-christians to accept God and have faith, the reward is that much sweeter. And the part where you say "faith ...making us overly dependent" I'd have to disagree with you. Faith, in God is a good thing. It's a good thing to want to lean on God's shoulder whenver something bad happens. God yearns this type of relationship from us. Furthermore, faith doesn't make us dependent. It makes us open up to other people to trust in their abilities. Faith is purely positive and the more the better.
yorrrrrrrr! i am really impressed with your writing abilities. I think its awesome that you are so honest in your opinions. Also the description of how Don Richardson let the sawi people decide how they were to act was an interesting discovery. I liked your description of faith and think that it is similar to my belief.well doen!
Brian! I'm sometimes a fan of yours!
I liked the way how you approach in discovering what we "define" faith as. But i don't really agree with the idea that we often rely too much on faith. I guess faith is what guides and reflects our actions. But the way how you defined faith as growing in how you trust others is really creative!!
Brian this is a great post. Your ideas are original and I like the point of view you express. I have to say that Sean has some interesting points and you have made us all this more clearly about our own faith. I believe that to truly live - and be alive - is to live by faith. It is harder to live by faith and not rely on your own common sense or logic. If you are afraid of life then don't try to live by faith. Faith means relying on God and not yourself. Mrs.Mc.
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