Faith is the ultimate resource, and it can transform any experience of our lives. Faith is confidence or trust in something that is not based on proof.
Interestingly, we are taught conflicting precepts about faith. Life is full of these apparent contradictions. We’re told “Look before you leap,” and we’re also told, “He who hesitates is lost.” We’re told “You gotta have faith,” and we’re also told “Trust, but verify.” We’re told to “Use your head,” and we’re also told to “Follow your heart.” We’re told to “Put yourself first,” and we’re told to “Put your family first.”
We are told… |
And yet we are also told… |
Look before you leap. |
He who hesitates is lost. |
You gotta have faith. |
Trust, but verify. |
Use your head. |
Follow your heart. |
Put yourself first. |
Put your family first. |
Put God first. |
Put yourself first. |
Practice makes perfect. |
No one is perfect. |
You’re never too old to learn. |
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. |
It’s better to be safe than sorry. |
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. |
Winners never quit. |
Quit while you’re ahead. |
What will be, will be. |
Life is what you make it. |
In my blog Living with a Baby Who is Going to Die at Birth and in my first update, I examined a host of challenges and contradictions that tested my faith and my wife Amira’s faith. We have come to realize that things like this can happen and perhaps will happen to us in the future. Faith is not just that we get through the challenge we’re facing; faith is that there’s a deeper meaning in it. We have learned that it’s one thing to have faith; it’s another thing to communicate faith.
Faith is the opposite of fear. Anthony Robbins said, “Faith is imagination unleashed about the best possibility, and fear is imagination unleashed about the worst possibility.” Can faith and fear coexist? Does living in one push the other away?
A lack of faith causes people to believe that when they’re in pain, they’re being punished. A lack of faith can cause people to be frozen with fear when faced with conflict. Contradictions are everywhere in our society and in our colloquialisms.
We are told… |
And yet we are also told… |
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. |
Out of sight, out of mind. |
The best things in life are free. |
There are no free lunches. |
Many hands make light work. |
Don’t have too many cooks in the kitchen. |
Two’s company, three’s a crowd. |
The more, the merrier. |
Talk is cheap. |
A word to the wise is sufficient. |
Expect miracles. |
Be realistic. |
Fortune favors the bold. |
Fools rush in. |
Follow your gut. |
Don’t be quick to judge. |
Give them an inch and they’ll take a yard. |
It is better to give than to receive. |
Take chances. |
Stay safe. |
As a naval officer, I was trained to always have certainty. Naval officers always know what to do. Even when we don’t know what to do – we know what to do. Naval officers never say, “I don’t know what to do.” We always know, especially when the path is unclear and uncharted. For us, certainty is not something that we rely upon others to give to us; certainty is something we bring with us. We walk into the room with it. If we don’t know the way, we will make the way. We will find the way. On the night of September 11th, 2001, President George W. Bush quoted this verse in his address to the nation: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will have no fear, for you are with me.” [Psalms 23:4 NIV] That verse guided and inspired me through The Global War on Terror and The Iraq War, and in the birth and coming death of our son Creed.
In times of sorrow, challenge, or pain, an empowering question to ask is: “What is the deeper meaning in all of this?” It is that life is short and precious. It is that we are lucky to live in the U.S. It is that there are so many loving and caring people around us. It is that God is present. We are learning more about faith from our baby boy who has not yet been born. Perhaps that is Creed’s legacy.
When the disciples were unable to heal a man possessed by a demon, they came to Jesus Christ and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” [Matthew 17:19-20 NIV] Faith grows in stages. Even a little faith backed by obedience will grow like a mustard seed grows into a strong tree.
We are told… |
And yet we are also told… |
Seek and ye shall find. |
Curiosity killed the cat. |
The higher you climb, the harder you fall. |
The sky’s the limit. |
Slow and steady wins the race. |
Time waits for no man. |
The bigger, the better. |
The best things come in small packages. |
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. |
Better safe than sorry. |
Opposites attract. |
Birds of a feather flock together. |
Silence is golden. |
The squeaky wheel gets the grease. |
Actions speak louder than words. |
The pen is mightier than the sword. |
Faith is the basis of my life, not fear. I welcome the apparent contradictions of our lives. Our faith is growing, and we thank Christ and our son Creed for that.
A dear friend of our family, Jessica Geren, created a website to help raise funds for us to defer the costs of carrying Creed to term. Please click here: http://www.gofundme.com/babycreeddesal
About the Author: Tai A. DeSa is the Team Leader of the Keller Williams Real Estate office in Allentown, Pennsylvania. DeSa is a graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to entering the real estate business, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. The purpose of Tai's life is to be a leader and writer, and to do insanely good things for himself and others.
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