Faith and feelings

I never had any religious faith coming naturally to me, even though I was raised religiously in a Catholic family. I heard that faith was a grace, but never could understand its working principle, or at least, none of it ever made sense to me, so today, I can see I’m a spiritual person, but certainly not a religious one. 

I came to the conclusion that faith wasn’t just a feeling like happiness or anger, but a totally different animal – pardon the pun – that might could be trained. The definition of faith is a belief in something beyond the tangible, often a higher power, religious doctrine, or set of values. It can come from proof, simple trust, personal experience, or a combination of these.

This obviously gets complicated when faith is about something deeply irrational, like a religion for instance, and in barring a miracle seldom happens, unless it is the result of relentless repetition, like brainwashing. That technique is used with small children in religious education to plant the seeds and eventually anchor their faith for the long haul. 

On the contrary, feelings are made of various states of emotion, like joy, sadness, anger, or fear. All feelings are subjective and influenced by various factors, including personal experiences, physical state, and external events. They will fluctuate frequently and are likely to be fleeting. While faith and feelings are different, they may interact in complex ways and influence each other. 

For instance, believing in something positive can lead to feelings of hope and joy. Likewise, feelings can influence faith as strong emotions, like love may inspire and strengthen faith. Conversely, feelings can contradict faith as some might feel doubt or despair, even though they have strong beliefs in God. 

In many ways, faith acts like expectation and let’s remember the equation: Happiness is Reality minus Expectation… or Faith!