Faith ~ My 2013 Tropicana Speech

Everyone has faith in something.  Faith in your parents that they raised you right.  Faith in your teachers that they speak truth.  Faith in government officials that they make the right choices for America.  Faith in your medical doctors, lawyers, and police officers that they will keep you safe.  Faith in the chair that you are sitting in; that it will hold you.  But what about faith in something greater than yourself.  A being that is not of this world.  One that controls our universe more than we do, and could control our destinies.  Perhaps it is not visible, and even words themselves can’t describe the incomparable enigma.  Around the world, people are putting their faith in something that they can’t see, hear, or touch.  Millions are choosing to believe in something that may or may not exist.  For reasons such as the complexity of a single particle of pollen, to DNA, from the birth of a star, to the birth of a human, there are things that cannot be scientifically explained.

 Faith is becoming a prominent role in the daily lives of Americans.  Everyday people are turning to faith to live out their lives.  People who weren’t sure what they believed in, are turning to something to stand on.  Former atheists such as CS Lewis are finding that there can’t be an absence of a creator and a controller.  Scientists that study the human genome are discovering that the complexity of our minds cannot be explained by the evolution of a single celled organism or a result of a natural phenomenon.  Humans are discovering something greater than themselves.  Something humbling and right.  People are dedicating their lives to their beliefs and having faith in something inexpressible.

Faith has always been an important part of my life.  I have been taught about a god who is loving, just, and forgiving.  One who gave His Son, so that we might live.  When I am down, or weak, I turn to a god who takes my burdens and carries me.  I choose to live my life for something beyond me, yet with a passion that takes over me like a conflagration.  It burns inside of me and I cannot explain it.  But isn’t that what faith is, something that even the greatest minds cannot explain.  I am learning to live by faith, even when I cannot see.  And when it is the hardest, that is when I truly rely on faith itself. 

 Faith is constantly growing.  And the scientific results are astounding.  Hospitals are reporting that faith may help people recover faster.  Dustin A. Pardini, of the University of Alabama, and Thomas G. Plante, of Santa Clara University did a study on how religion and spirituality affect substance abuse patients.  It showed that in fact, faith does have an affect on the way people recover.  Dr Daniel Hall of the University of Pittsburg Medical Center says that those who attend weekly religious services have a life expectancy increase comparable to that of those who exercise daily!

What do people ask for when someone is terminally ill, they ask for prayer and for people to have faith.  And when lives are taken, some people are drawn to it.  “But where was God?” some people ask.  Are they questioning His existence, or are they really searching for something to have faith in.  After all faith is believing in something that is indescribable.  Some say that faith is a crutch, a sign of weakness and a false hope in something that cannot ever be seen, but I beg you to consider this: faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see and with faith, impossible is just another word.