Faith Can Help You Soar: What Four Great Authors Have to Say About It
By Katrina Lynn Hawkins, FaithCounts.com Contributor
If you’re human, you are probably afraid of failure. We all want to succeed, to fit in, to be loved. And when things don’t quite work out the way we planned, we think we’ve failed. Or perhaps we don’t even try because we think we’ll never be able to do it. But when we think in these ways, we aren’t demonstrating faith. The four fiction authors quoted below don’t see success and failure as the world does. Rather, they see risks and even failure as opportunities to increase in faith.
“Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.” J.R.R. Tolkien
Want to preserve yourself from humiliation by giving in to peer pressure? Or by not applying to that university because there’s no way you’ll get in? Perhaps you don’t talk to your new coworker simply because you assume they don’t want anything to do with you. Or maybe you don’t dare share your faith with a struggling friend because you think you’ll offend them.
So you hide in your little corner and remain a very flat character in the story of your life.
Taking risks is the only chance you’ll have at finding the success you dream of.
But what happens if you are rejected by that university, or by those you associate with? What if you do offend someone?
“Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.” Beatrix Potter
Even if all your worst fears come true, remember that God is in charge. And because He’s in charge, things will work out for the best. He knows what will make you the happiest, and maybe that means not finding the success you anticipated.
All you can do is keep doing your best, believing in Him and living righteously. Then He’ll take care of the rest.
And think about it: if you found success every time no matter what, would you be able to develop true faith?
“It’s easy to believe in something when you win all the time . . . The losses are what define a man’s faith.” Brandon Sanderson
It’s getting back up after a fall that demonstrates real faith. It’s doing something even though you aren’t sure of the results.
If you never have a chance to hope that things will work out despite the plummets in the road, will your faith in God ever increase?
No, it won’t, because you’ll always be able to see certain success. Faith is to believe when you don’t know what will happen. It may be scary at times, but no matter what happens, with God on your side you will soar.
“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.” J.M. Barrie
If you think you can’t, you for sure won’t be able to. But, if you know that with God’s help you can find success—perhaps in the way you initially hoped, perhaps not—you will fly farther than you ever thought possible.
Study the words of Rebecca St. James’s song “Lion,” which was inspired by the film “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Remember that Aslan represents Jesus Christ:
This is not a dream that I’m living
This is just a world of Your own
You took me from all that I knew
Shown me how it feels to hope
With You with me, facing tomorrow together
I can learn to fly
These four fiction writers managed to find success, but not without failure and faith. Dream big and God will take you beyond those hopes to places you’ve never dreamed of. He will help you fly.
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