How I Faith! (It’s a verb)

The voices sang all around me, pleading, and promising a better life. One full of fast cars big houses and beautiful women. The other side promised me that I no longer had to feel any pain or suffering, and while both options looked appealing a small voice inside of me told me to shut them out. The voice in me said to close my eyes and ears to the promises surrounding me. It told me to focus on the path ahead.

“But it is shrouded in darkness; I don’t know where it leads,” I said my voice catching in my chest, terrified. The voice spoke back stronger this time.

“You have followed the other paths already, they promise you the world but lead you nowhere. They are not the way for you.” It said,

“I know they almost killed me, but maybe it will be different this time. Maybe I did something wrong; I should try again.” I said turning from the darkened path. As the voice yelled at me.

“To go down the path filled with promises of a pain-free life and riches and fame is to deny the life God has given you. The one standing directly in front of you. It may be dark, and you may not be able to see where you are going, but with each step, you grow stronger, and the path lightens. The longer you walk through the dark, the better you will become navigating it. And while you may fall and hurt yourself, the pain will remind you that you are on the right path. There is no joy without pain, no love without hate, no light without darkness. Have faith that each step is leading you down the path you were meant to be on. Like a child opening a present on Christmas, part of the joy is in not knowing the surprises that lie ahead of us. Trust that the path, while it may be dark is not full of death, it is full of life, and the only way to experience it is to walk one step at a time into the darkness.”

I stood at a crossroads, I wanted to feel comfortable and safe, but I had been there before Alcohol had promised me a life of no pain or suffering and it almost killed me. I had to be willing to walk a different path this time. One that was not known to me, but that the voice inside told me was the right path. I had to be willing to step into the darkness and become someone different. Someone stronger, I had to become a channel for which love and hate, fear and joy, suffering and enlightenment could flow through. For me to deny one would be to deny the other. It is ok to be afraid, but it is more important to move anyway. Have faith in the face of fear, that by living by the principals of a good life, I will have a good life.

I must walk the path by faith, closing my eyes and trusting the voice inside to guide me to a life that I have never known, one that doesn’t promise me the world. A life that only promises me opportunity to become the person of my dreams, the man I was born to be.

I will step into the Darkness of the path today and have Faith that with each trembling step my path will lighten and I will become stronger because of it.

Have a great day.