Faith of a nation

Faith can be a funny thing, depending on where you’re standing and what you put your faith into. I was raised to put my faith in God first, family second and country third, but all had strong intermingling depending on whom you were with at the time. So what happens when something shakes the foundations of one of those three? Or if the things you held once dear to your heart seem to be faded, tainted or just plain misdirected.

We can start by looking at faith through different lenses. I was a firefighter once, and sometimes you had to have faith in different things. You had to have faith in your training, in your equipment, in your fellow firefighters and faith in science. You had to know you had the best training to do the job you were asked to do. If you did not feel confident, you received more training. You also had to know your equipment’s capabilities, does this truck have the pumping capacity needed for the job? Is this the right size hose for this amount and kind of fire? Does my air pack fit properly? And so on. If you did not trust the gear, you shouldn’t use it. Will my fellow firefighter give their life for mine? Do I trust them to perform their duties as I perform mine? Do I trust this person to make correct command decisions? Then the big ones: Will the fire act accordingly when I put the proper amount of water on it? Will the wind shift? What will the chemical reaction be?

Just like in any life threating job you must have faith in some things.

So back to the shaking. What happens when something happens to shake the foundations of what you believe? What you have faith in. Questions happen. A long time ago, a couple I really looked up to had some marital problems and ended up divorcing. I thought their marriage had been the perfect model, and when I found out it, shook me to the core. A little older now, I realize that sometimes on the surface things are not always as they seem, and that one little mistake can unravel something good.

Shaking again. Also, when I was younger, I watched a movie called JFK. Kevin Costner starred as the man called upon to solve the riddle of the president’s assassination. I know it was a movie, but my faith in my country was shifted a bit as I left the theater with more questions about our leaders than when I’d entered.

Once again, I am at a place, or should I say we are as a country, where there is just so much going on within the walls of government that it seems we have shifted off our foundations. Call it what you want — conspiracy, agendas, stances or whatever, something just does not feel right about the name calling, side taking and sometimes even miscommunicating that is happening daily in all areas of the branch. There was a time that when you stood up for the national anthem, that it meant something. Now we just see back biting and finger pointing no matter who does what? Where is the faith in that?

And now we bring the cornerstone of our existence of a country into the mix. Yes, our country has made some mistakes along the way, some that will never be healed, but remember why we came across the pond to begin with: to escape religious persecution. And for freedom to choose. And so at this time we have faith-filled believers wanting to flex their freedom of rights, and those doors remain closed. I understand the logic behind it, but logic does not change the Constitution or Bill of Rights of this country. I understand the fear in others, but should we disregard those who choose to live a fearless life and surround themselves in a faith culture that has healing on their mission statement. Should not we, as individuals, be able to make the simple choice as to what we think is safe for us to do and what is not.

We should have pride in being Americans and everything that stands for. One of those things is freedom to choose. Do I stay home or work? Mask or no mask? Church or stay home? Democrat or Republican or neither? And with all that being said, “What about the rights of the others?” I stand up for them too. I don’t have to agree with you or you me, for me to understand you have rights too. That is my whole point.

So where do we go from here? To have faith again in our country, to have faith in our church? Well I believe it is intermingled. Look back to the beginning, read the all-important documents of our history. The answers are right there, why we were founded to begin with.

So maybe I confused a lot of you, or maybe you think I am confused, but one thing I know for sure. I have faith in my creator, I have faith in my family and I still have faith in the United States of America. We will get through this and probably be stronger on the other end. God Bless America and its people.