Month: February 2019

Thought For The Day

Quote #1

“True faith is keeping your eyes on God when the world around you is falling apart.” (Unknown)

Quote #2

“It’s a weak faith that only serves God in times of blessings. The book of Job teaches us that true faith, genuine faith, great faith is revealed only when we serve and trust God in the hard times, the times of suffering, loss, and opposition. That’s the kind of faith that makes the world sit up and take notice.” (Ray Stedman)

Quote #3

“We’re not always going to understand why something happens. True faith is trusting even when it doesn’t make sense.” (Joel Olsteen)

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Would You Still Have Your Faith In God After Suffering For A Long Time?

I have to admit I find it extremely frustrating when a religious person tells me how great their faith in God is when everything is going so well for them in their life. Is that really true faith? In my opinion, I believe one’s true faith in God is forged when everything seems to be falling apart in life and has been for a long period of time.

Throughout my spiritual journey, I’ve met a lot of people from many different religious backgrounds who seem to have plenty of faith in their Higher Power when life is going their way. Sometimes it even feels as if they like to congratulate themselves on their level of faith by believing they must be doing everything right with God because their life is going so smoothly. A good relationship, a good job, a good pay, a good family life, a good health, and a good set of material things MUST equal how GREAT God is and GREAT their faith in God is right? Yet, what happens to their faith when those good things suddenly begin to disappear from their life and they start suffering? And what happens when that suffering goes on and on and on for a long time? Sadly, many tend to lose their faith in God in times like that. They become negative, bitter and usually struggle to understand why God would let such bad things happen to them, especially when others seem to have it so much better.

You see, that’s my story. I was once someone who proclaimed how great God was and how great my faith in God was. It always came though during those periods of my life when things were going my way, when no one I loved was dying, when I was getting a great income, when I was taking nice vacations, when I was is in an awesome relationship, when I was affording nice things, and when I wasn’t ever thinking about my health at all because I was so active in life. My faith in God began to show its weakness though when my father committed suicide in 1996 and when my mother took her drunken fall down the stairs to her death in 2005. After making it through both of those difficult periods with a sliver of faith, it wasn’t until 2010 when I saw the true fragility of my faith.

It was in 2010 when I lost my business, then my financial fortune, then my health, then my ability to remain physically active in life, and then my capacity to work and earn any sort of income for myself. As each of these things disappeared and didn’t return, more and more of my “awesome faith” in God disappeared as well. As days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and months into years, I began to wonder why I still believed and sought God, when I had lost so much of those good things.

When my spiritual teacher left my active life in the spring of 2016 and told me I had to walk the next leg of my journey alone, I lost the last thing I had left in my life that was helping me to desperately cling to what little faith I still had left in God. And let me tell you, those first few months after that would test my faith beyond anything I’d ever experience before in life.

But here I am in February of 2019 still moving forward, still believing in God, and still keeping my faith, even when a sane person would probably have done otherwise by this point under the same suffering and conditions I’ve continued to endure. I honestly can’t say why I’ve been able to hold onto my faith in God, but I have, and I’m thankful I have, as it’s probably the only thing keeping me going these days. There are days though where I really question whether God exists and why I still believe in Him given the hell I’ve gone through and keep going through. Yet, if you want to know what my gut tells me about why I still have any sort of faith in God, it’s this.

Because I believe that true faith isn’t forged in life when you have everything going well for you. Rather, I think true faith is built during times of long suffering, as what eventually arises out of that is an understanding that life isn’t about having any of those good things whatsoever. Instead, what I’ve found in all this long suffering is that life is more about getting in touch with an unlimited well of unconditional love for myself and others, learning how to appreciate everyone and everything no matter what the circumstances, and being able to forgive, even when it hurts, all of which were things I never could quite grasp in any period of my life prior, where I thought I had such a great faith in God…when I actually didn’t…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Silly Joke Friday

Silly Joke #1

At the Sunday morning church service, the minister asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers. A lady stood and walked to the podium. She said, “I’m Lois and I have a Praise. Two months ago, my husband, Tom, had a terrible bicycle crash and his scrotum was completely crushed. The pain was terrible and the doctors didn’t know if they could help him.” You could hear a muffled gasp from all the men in the congregation as they imagined the pain that poor Tom must have experienced. “Tom was unable to hold me or the children,” she went on, “and every movement caused him terrible pain. We prayed as the doctors performed a very delicate operation, which lasted for over five hours, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Tom’s scrotum and wrap wire around it to hold it in place.” Again, the men in the congregation were unnerved and squirmed uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible surgery that was performed on Tom. “Now,” she announced in a quavering voice, “thank the Lord, after six weeks, Tom is now out of the hospital and the doctors say that with time, his scrotum should recover completely.” All the men sighed with relief. The minister rose and tentatively asked if anyone else had something to say. A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium. He said, “I’m Tom.” The entire congregation gasped again and held their breath. “Lois, the word was sternum NOT scrotum!”

Silly Joke #2

The first-grade teacher was showing pictures of animals to her students to see how many they could name. She held up a picture of a lamb, and a little girl said, “That’s a sheep!””That’s right!” said the teacher. “How about THIS one?” she said, holding up a picture of the king of beasts. “That’s a lion!” answered a little boy. “Right!” said the teacher. Then she held up a picture of a deer. No one volunteered an answer. She tried to help. “What does your mother call your father?” Johnny said, “I know! I know! It’s a lazy old goat!”

Silly Joke #3

A kindergarten student was having trouble putting on his boots, and asked his teacher for help. Even with her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn’t want to go on. Finally, they got both boots on. She grimaced when the little boy said, “They’re on the wrong feet.”Sure enough, they were. The teacher kept her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on – this time on the correct feet. The little boy then announced, “These aren’t my boots.” The teacher sighed and pulled the boots off. The boy then said, “They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear them.” The teacher felt like crying, but she mustered up the strength to wrestle the boots back onto his feet. “Now,” she said, “Where are your mittens?” The boy replied, “I stuffed them in my boots….”

Bonus Silly Joke

A psychiatrist’s secretary walked into his study and said, “There’s a gentleman in the waiting room asking to see you. Claims he’s invisible.”The psychiatrist responded, “Tell him I can’t see him today.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson