MIKE DEPUNG Discovering Self, Passion, Purpose--Discovering Life
  • Blog
  • About Mike DePung
  • Poetry of Energy and Life by Mike DePung
  • Contact

    Discover Self. Create Purpose. Want a free book to help? Fill in the info, and it's yours!

Submit

A Force to Move Us Forward Day by Day: Faith

10/21/2016

1 Comment

 
Until faith becomes personal, it’s a word that’s easy to use. Faith involves action, but it’s damned hard to take even simple actions when we don’t know what’s ahead.
Have you ever walked through woods at night? I’m not talking about being scared, but when you are trying to make your way back through the dark in an unfamiliar place, it takes faith to stay true on a particular heading. We just want to see where we are going, every step of the way. It’s natural.
In the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:7 reads, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” That concept of walking when we can’t see works well, particularly because it implies we have to move, walk. It’s easy to find a thousand references to faith in the Bible, but I’m only using one more to make my point. James 2:17: “…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead.” If you’re on that dark path in the woods, it doesn’t do ANY good to sit down and believe in your mind that you will reach your destination. Guess what? When you open your eyes, you will still be sitting in the dark, no closer to your goal. Faith requires action.
Faith also drives action, and therein lies great value. Faith focuses on the end game. And for those who know Self and walk in the fellowship of the Heart, that end game is knowing and living life Purpose as expressed in our vision and mission. Action, execution, doing the work to get to the goal, a goal to which we do not know every step of the way, is powered by faith. A vision, no matter how well visualized, will not occur without action driven by faith.
Faith, though, needs an object, and that object is focus on life Purpose, an expression of Self. Too easy or too hard, we can waver. Faith refuses to acknowledge either extreme because if it did, we would have no way to move forward when challenges arise.
In regards to those, let me make something clear. Those who speak lightly of faith don’t know the grittiness of it, the need for it in the daily grind of moving forward. Faith is not an inert spiritual quality, some ethereal notion or philosophy. When challenges do arise, faith allows us to recognize the true source and enables us to press on.
However, if we are allowing Ego to be our operating system, we may attribute challenges to faith or even what we perceive as failures to be the fault of others. Or we may conclude that fate or God or some power is against us and telling us to go another route. That route will never be discovered by allowing ego to act as our default operating system.
By the way, challenges to faith do not originate from some outside agency, be it God, Satan, other humans or any event or circumstances. The source of the challenge is always our perceptions of Self if we have come to self-awareness and walk in the fellowship of the heart. Anything that I perceive as causing me delay or interference or I consider as an alternative path to living my Purpose is a challenge to faith. That’s when it gets real and I need to get going.
Sometimes, going is not a turbo-charged, frenzied effort of productivity, but a simple matter of moving ahead at least an inch. A popular encouragement from my youth was to tell someone to keep on keeping on (KOKO). Sometimes, keeping on is barely getting by, but progress, always progress. Therefore, when I face challenges, I know I have created them as consequences of the drive to live Discovery. When I create a challenge because something needs to change in my life in order to work my mission, faith tells me to move my ass.
How about you? Keep on keeping on!
1 Comment
Colton link
7/15/2023 06:16:09 am

Thanks greeat blog

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Questions to consider:

    How many times have you asked yourself or simply thought about the following questions?

    Who am I, really?

    What is my truth?

    How do my actions reveal what I really feel and believe?

    What would I do with my life if I could do anything?

    What is my passion?

    Why am I here?

    How can I discover answers to any of these questions?

    If you have considered any of these questions, I hope that my experiences and writing will give you some guidance. Please read my blog and comment and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you!

    Archives

    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All

    View my profile on LinkedIn
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Blog
  • About Mike DePung
  • Poetry of Energy and Life by Mike DePung
  • Contact