Here is my Eng2 concept paper about Faith beyond Religion. Check it out.
Faith, a word formally used for concepts of religion and theology and at the same time being universally defined as a trust or belief in Supernatural Being and transcendent reality is mainly a belief or allegiance in the credibility and reliability of a thought or an idea.
The word “faith” could also be used informally but it may be a little broad and most of the times being equated with “trust” and “believe” making the word deteriorated as it is being defined less than what it really means. This essence of faith is quite stereotypical. And beyond the conventional definition of the term are thoughts about faith unconsciously applied in our everyday experiences---even by the nonbelievers.
I am a huge basketball fan and being able to watch my all-time favorite team Barangay Ginebra Kings win the 2008 PBA Fiesta Conference last August is indeed very surprising. Being able to grab that championship in spite of all the challenges that the team faced is not just a matter of being a better basketball team compared to others. It involves an attitude that is typical of an individual who knows how faith works. But we usually would not relate these two, like for instance the comparison between Basketball and Faith. First of all, faith is considered something that is only religious and focuses mainly on theology but this time, we will look into the similarities of Basketball AND Faith.
Basketball is incredible to watch. One team can be down by several points in the game at any given instance yet simply by not giving up and with the passion and determination every player possesses, they will continue to fight back as one until they once again grab the lead and take control. Something interesting also happens simultaneously. The opposing team will soon find themselves trailing behind then appears to collapse under pressure and will end up losing the game. Anyone who is careful enough to look into the details of that championship game of Ginebra against Air21 will be able to see this reality. Then after Game 7 of that pulsating series, Ginebra won after trailing two games to one and most of their games are won because of their unbelievable mental strength.
I can compare faith with that same mental strength the team have. Faith can be equated with mental determination together with the needed action to achieve a goal. But then again, faith is not just a mindset mixed with pride. It involves a lot of elements to make it work out. Ginebra did not win that championship because they were better. There are other teams with healthier and with more talented line-up, teams who have better game plans and are just there together with Ginebra at the peak of the standings, but one of the biggest advantages that they have over the others is that they are rarely crushed early in the game with a weak mindset. This team will never say die even when it looks like they can never prevail. That same mindset is what faith is meant. Faith is much more than belief.
Believing in something or someone does not necessarily mean that we have faith in it. Most of the time, we believe only when we were able to prove to ourselves that one thing is real and can be predicted as it can be seen and be felt. The substantial power in which we believers ought to have faith in is unquestionably not predictable at all. And this is probably the main reason why those sceptics prefer to believe that the substantial power that we grasp on to as a source of our everyday strength cannot be received from anybody or anything else but from themselves alone, and that only them can decide on their fate. This reality is enough for us to draw a line between “faith” and “believing” making the difference of these two terms clear.
Faith is when you never proved its existence yet you believe. It is never easy to be able to make yourself believe in something you never proved to be real. For most of us, to be able to feel something is not enough for us to render our trust. We need evidences. We need proofs. But more than that, we need to experience something first before making ourselves believe. But when we were able to offer our wholehearted trust without knowing if it is real, then it is faith. In my opinion, being able to do such thing is indeed courageous. It takes guts. It takes spirit. It takes character. Nothing may give you any assurance at all, but it does not matter. Because you know deep in your heart that there is something worth believing.
It is when everything seems impossible yet you keep on trying. Sheer heart is what we need to be able to have this kind of faith. It doesn’t matter how hard as long as you know how to grasp on to your life’s miracles. It doesn’t matter how far you have to go as long as you know where to go. It doesn’t matter how impossible one thing could be as long as you know how to fight for it. Being able to realize your desires in life is being able to realize what faith is all about.
It is when you are in your most trying times of your life yet you can smile.Failure and disappointment are what hinder us from moving on most of the time. Sometimes when we decide to continue in spite of every trial, we are delimited by our wrong doings making it hard for us to accept defeat. Acceptance is the key. Without accepting defeat, we will not be able to appreciate the sweetness of success and without experiencing the pain of losing, we will not be able to learn how to win again. Everything in this world has two sides. And being able to look into the other side of circumstances without knowing what lies ahead is faith.
It is when you know you have to leave yet you stay.Leaving someone or something close to our hearts behind us can really be painful at times. Even the most patient and understanding person in the world can also get tired and lose hope. It’s not all the time that people hold on. Each and every one of us has our own boundaries and limitations. But being able to sustain that same understanding and being able to prolong that patience is a crucial decision to make because you will have to risk everything for you to be able to prove to yourself that you made the right decision for hanging on. To risk is to have faith that you will succeed.
It is when you still believe even if the world gives you every reason not to.It’s never easy to go up against everyone especially if they do make sense. It will just be like going to a war fully-equipped but alone. However, we should always put in mind that sometimes, going to a war even if we are alone is much better than not going to the war at all. Why are we afraid of setbacks if we are not even afraid of not trying something in the first place? Regrets don’t have a place in our short lives. We should realize how to grasp on to our life’s opportunities and be able to feel the joy of winning as well as the pain of defeat. And when you continue to struggle against the challenges of the situation even if everyone is telling you that the war is not worth fighting for, then it is faith.
So therefore, we can attest that there are so many other ways to explain how faith works. It may be a conflict between religion and individuality, a clash between our own personal opinions and experiences, or a unity between our beliefs and principles in life. We may look at “faith” in our own unique way or we may not look at it at all but only one thing is for sure---Believing when there is nothing else that you can do---this is what faith is all about.
References:
Wommack, A. The Reality of Faith - Article. Retrieved December 13, 2008, from Andrew Wommack’s Ministries Web site: http://awmi.net/extra/article/reality_faith
Faith. Retrieved December 13, 2008, from Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/faith
Faith, a word formally used for concepts of religion and theology and at the same time being universally defined as a trust or belief in Supernatural Being and transcendent reality is mainly a belief or allegiance in the credibility and reliability of a thought or an idea.
The word “faith” could also be used informally but it may be a little broad and most of the times being equated with “trust” and “believe” making the word deteriorated as it is being defined less than what it really means. This essence of faith is quite stereotypical. And beyond the conventional definition of the term are thoughts about faith unconsciously applied in our everyday experiences---even by the nonbelievers.
I am a huge basketball fan and being able to watch my all-time favorite team Barangay Ginebra Kings win the 2008 PBA Fiesta Conference last August is indeed very surprising. Being able to grab that championship in spite of all the challenges that the team faced is not just a matter of being a better basketball team compared to others. It involves an attitude that is typical of an individual who knows how faith works. But we usually would not relate these two, like for instance the comparison between Basketball and Faith. First of all, faith is considered something that is only religious and focuses mainly on theology but this time, we will look into the similarities of Basketball AND Faith.
Basketball is incredible to watch. One team can be down by several points in the game at any given instance yet simply by not giving up and with the passion and determination every player possesses, they will continue to fight back as one until they once again grab the lead and take control. Something interesting also happens simultaneously. The opposing team will soon find themselves trailing behind then appears to collapse under pressure and will end up losing the game. Anyone who is careful enough to look into the details of that championship game of Ginebra against Air21 will be able to see this reality. Then after Game 7 of that pulsating series, Ginebra won after trailing two games to one and most of their games are won because of their unbelievable mental strength.
I can compare faith with that same mental strength the team have. Faith can be equated with mental determination together with the needed action to achieve a goal. But then again, faith is not just a mindset mixed with pride. It involves a lot of elements to make it work out. Ginebra did not win that championship because they were better. There are other teams with healthier and with more talented line-up, teams who have better game plans and are just there together with Ginebra at the peak of the standings, but one of the biggest advantages that they have over the others is that they are rarely crushed early in the game with a weak mindset. This team will never say die even when it looks like they can never prevail. That same mindset is what faith is meant. Faith is much more than belief.
Believing in something or someone does not necessarily mean that we have faith in it. Most of the time, we believe only when we were able to prove to ourselves that one thing is real and can be predicted as it can be seen and be felt. The substantial power in which we believers ought to have faith in is unquestionably not predictable at all. And this is probably the main reason why those sceptics prefer to believe that the substantial power that we grasp on to as a source of our everyday strength cannot be received from anybody or anything else but from themselves alone, and that only them can decide on their fate. This reality is enough for us to draw a line between “faith” and “believing” making the difference of these two terms clear.
Faith is when you never proved its existence yet you believe. It is never easy to be able to make yourself believe in something you never proved to be real. For most of us, to be able to feel something is not enough for us to render our trust. We need evidences. We need proofs. But more than that, we need to experience something first before making ourselves believe. But when we were able to offer our wholehearted trust without knowing if it is real, then it is faith. In my opinion, being able to do such thing is indeed courageous. It takes guts. It takes spirit. It takes character. Nothing may give you any assurance at all, but it does not matter. Because you know deep in your heart that there is something worth believing.
It is when everything seems impossible yet you keep on trying. Sheer heart is what we need to be able to have this kind of faith. It doesn’t matter how hard as long as you know how to grasp on to your life’s miracles. It doesn’t matter how far you have to go as long as you know where to go. It doesn’t matter how impossible one thing could be as long as you know how to fight for it. Being able to realize your desires in life is being able to realize what faith is all about.
It is when you are in your most trying times of your life yet you can smile.Failure and disappointment are what hinder us from moving on most of the time. Sometimes when we decide to continue in spite of every trial, we are delimited by our wrong doings making it hard for us to accept defeat. Acceptance is the key. Without accepting defeat, we will not be able to appreciate the sweetness of success and without experiencing the pain of losing, we will not be able to learn how to win again. Everything in this world has two sides. And being able to look into the other side of circumstances without knowing what lies ahead is faith.
It is when you know you have to leave yet you stay.Leaving someone or something close to our hearts behind us can really be painful at times. Even the most patient and understanding person in the world can also get tired and lose hope. It’s not all the time that people hold on. Each and every one of us has our own boundaries and limitations. But being able to sustain that same understanding and being able to prolong that patience is a crucial decision to make because you will have to risk everything for you to be able to prove to yourself that you made the right decision for hanging on. To risk is to have faith that you will succeed.
It is when you still believe even if the world gives you every reason not to.It’s never easy to go up against everyone especially if they do make sense. It will just be like going to a war fully-equipped but alone. However, we should always put in mind that sometimes, going to a war even if we are alone is much better than not going to the war at all. Why are we afraid of setbacks if we are not even afraid of not trying something in the first place? Regrets don’t have a place in our short lives. We should realize how to grasp on to our life’s opportunities and be able to feel the joy of winning as well as the pain of defeat. And when you continue to struggle against the challenges of the situation even if everyone is telling you that the war is not worth fighting for, then it is faith.
So therefore, we can attest that there are so many other ways to explain how faith works. It may be a conflict between religion and individuality, a clash between our own personal opinions and experiences, or a unity between our beliefs and principles in life. We may look at “faith” in our own unique way or we may not look at it at all but only one thing is for sure---Believing when there is nothing else that you can do---this is what faith is all about.
References:
Wommack, A. The Reality of Faith - Article. Retrieved December 13, 2008, from Andrew Wommack’s Ministries Web site: http://awmi.net/extra/article/reality_faith
Faith. Retrieved December 13, 2008, from Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/faith
