Losing Faith

          I find losing faith is an easy thing to do: if I want to try to lose faith today I can just turn on news, turn on almost any primetime show on any network, look at all the sadness on Facebook, visit the hospital, or read any internet page comment section (literally on almost any site). Through any of the aforementioned activities it can be quite easy to find myself losing faith in the goodness of humankind, losing faith in Christians who actually live what they claim to believe, losing faith in myself, losing faith that there is any intelligent life out there (that’s from those internet comment threads again – what horrible hole did these people crawl out of?), and even losing faith that there is a loving God watching over us. It’s so easy to let all of the noise everywhere, not just aid in losing faith, but eventually destroy it altogether.

            The Internet (ironically where I’m sharing this) is so good at spreading negativity, hate, and despair that Satan must love how user-friendly it is for him. The Internet is the perfect place to visit if you are looking to lose some faith today. Now, thanks to the Internet, everyone knows about every sorrow in every country the second it happens.

Now pornography is no longer just in a magazine to sneak somewhere but in anyone’s hand any day at any time. Not only that but the pornography on the Internet can now really “push the envelope” (isn’t that Hollywood speak for “ruin more lives, peddle more crap, distort love, promote violence, embrace profanity, spit on all things virtuous, profane God and his name, suck out the innocence of childhood, champion immorality, make the public think this is the new normal and do it all under the name of “art and free speech”? Yeah, it is.) Internet pornography pushes the envelope (and it already started with the envelope waaayyy off to wherever you push it) by depicting more than just naked bodies but rather violent and disturbing images of people doing things that I don’t want to mention on here. It also often exploits innocent children and even enslaved women on its pages of filth: sickeningly awful for all involved and faith-robbing for so many.

The Internet also lets everyone see when their opinions are not met with approval by those Internet commenting people (I really need to come up with a good name for them but most of the names I’m thinking of aren’t very nice, and you know what Thumper’s dad says about “If you can’t say something nice…”) but those people make their opinions known loud and clear on everything good and kind and moral thing in the world and it’s easy to want to cower rather than stand. The Internet shows us whatever news it wants us to see with the stories that it wants us to read. If I was the devil and wanted to sway a group of people to my side I would start with the people who run where everyone gets their info – get the news and the media. I don’t think all news and media are bad – heavens no, there are still some good people that work in media and occasionally good things produced by or shared through media, but I think in a broad sense most media caters and empowers everything immoral and does not generally promote godliness, virtue, morality or anything even close. And the Internet just makes media so much easier to access.

The truths and values that I embrace are mocked on every side and it’s not hard to find mocking in some part on nearly every Internet page. The Internet lets me see and hear the thoughts of my friends who have lost their faith and love to let everyone know how anti-religion and anti-God they’ve become. The Internet may be the easiest place to quickly lose our faith. Nothing seems good, nothing seems lasting, and preached everywhere is, yep you guessed it, a whole lotta nothing.

           

Losing faith is just so easy.

           

And, on the flip side, gaining faith takes effort and diligence and commitment. It takes standing when everyone else sits, it takes being unpopular, it takes pain and perseverance, it takes lots of time on your knees, it takes the kind of sincere prayer that involves heart, mind, and soul. Gaining faith takes asking hard questions and seeking hard answers until they are found. Gaining faith often takes relying on faith acquired in the past, holding onto knowledge you once had while situations test that faith and then working feverishly to push through trials and come out triumphant.

Gaining faith is not easy.

And yet it is simple and so worth it.

Gaining faith will requiring stopping and thinking. Gaining faith will require talking to God and really pouring out your heart. Gaining faith will require reading (not the Internet for heaven sakes!) but rather the scriptures and God’s word. Gaining faith will take shutting out the world by turning off all electronics and listening to the spirit and the promptings that it gives. Gaining faith will require sacrificing something that is pushing you to lose faith instead.

I’ve experienced losing faith. I know what’s it’s like to cry out to heaven and feel like there is no answer. I’ve cried over a loss or a friend’s loss. I’ve had doubt and fear and hate. I’ve even slid so far, at one point, down the path of losing faith that I didn’t know if I could say that I really believed in a loving Heavenly Father. I will tell more of my journey in future posts but I know what it’s like to let things pummel my faith until it is so weak and battered.

So today I challenge everyone to do what I am doing. I challenge everyone to gain faith today. It will be simple; unplug from the propaganda the world wants to sell you…and be still long enough to feel God’s love and act on a prompting he gives you. It may be as simple as praying for someone, it may be visiting someone, it may be calling or texting (that kind of “plugged in” is allowed), it may be something you could never have guessed without really listening. I know that acting on promptings has been the fastest and most sure way for me to gain faith. So let today, no matter where your faith is at this point, be a day for gaining faith.