FAITH MATTERS

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

We are certainly living in a very unpredictable world at the moment and I feel, for some of us, it is not too unrealistic to think there is no end in sight or to ask: “What's next?” 

Since the start of 2020 it seems that, just as things look like they are starting to improve, another hurdle is thrown our way, be it from natural causes or politically driven decisions. All we have to do is watch the daily news and we are inundated with doom and gloom. Feel good stories seem to be few and far between.

So how do we get though all of this? It would be easier to throw your hands up in the air and say: “It’s all too hard, I give up”. In fact, I would not be surprised if some have done exactly that, but they would be very much in the minority. The majority, either as individuals, families or communities utilise their abilities of determination, experience, knowledge and skills etc. to navigate a pathway to firstly deal with and then eventually overcome these adversities. This has been illustrated most recently with the Year 12 students from St Joseph’s College Echuca, alongside an eight and a half month pregnant woman and other members of their community sandbagging a phenomenal number of sandbags to help the town. And in my opinion the driving force behind these actions is the faith that no matter what the circumstances, things will get better. 

In this context, faith is directed at ourselves and in each other to keep persisting and as such confirms that we all can and do have faith. If you need proof, then the simple example of driving a car involves having faith in your own ability to drive safely and conversely to have faith in other drivers to do the same.

Personally, I have faith that the appropriate authorities will undertake all measures to prevent the flood waters from reaching where I live. My experience tells me from 2011 that my house should remain untouched and I will not have to sandbag like we did back then. If this is the case I consider myself to be very lucky by comparison to all those people who have lost or sustained damage to their homes and properties throughout Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

If my home is flooded, I will still have faith that my family will receive assistance from other family members, friends and the wider community and that I will be thankful for my circumstances because the reality is, I could be a lot worse off.

Overall, I will still have faith that things will get better and I look forward to starting afresh very soon. Faith clearly matters.