I was studying in Alma 32 and in looking for more information about faith I stumbled across these words from President Boyd K. Packer. I’m just going to state them now:
“Faith, to be faith, must center around something that is not known. Faith, to be faith, must go beyond that for which there is confirming evidence. Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown. Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness. If everything has to be known, if everything has to be explained, if everything has to be certified, then there is no need for faith. Indeed, there is no room for it…
There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; It gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen…
There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. ?It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things… It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent, power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed and channeled, it has great effect…
When will we learn that in spiritual things… believing is seeing? Spiritual belief precedes spiritual knowledge. When we believe in things that are not seen but are nevertheless true, then we have faith.”
(“What Is Faith?” in Faith [1983], 42–43)
Beautiful, beautiful words.
A couple of days ago, I went disc golfing with Meghan. I am beyond grateful that she is willing to go with me, and she even has her own discs to throw – she’s getting really good! We arrived at our final hole, a right-curving shot just across a little river. I dialed up my throw and wound up pulling it too far to the right, leaving me on the opposite edge of the river as the basket. I had a 30 foot putt across the water with a tree in my way.
I had had a lousy day of putting thus far, but for some reason I was feeling good about this one. I lined up my shot, having to stretch in order to get a look around the tree. Meghan stood to the side silently cheering me on. I envisioned the chains rattling, the triumph of finishing the day with a mega putt, and I allowed that vision to fill me up. I released the putt, watched it slice through the air much better than any previous putt that day, and…
It worked.
It SLAMMED the chains and fell right into the basket. I threw my arms up and cheered, aided by some walkers who also cheered for me. Meghan ran to me and kissed me, and we happily jumped from rock to rock across the river to retrieve my prize. It was a fantastic moment.
We celebrated the shot by watching this beautiful sunrise on the cliffside a short drive away.
My friends know me as an optimist – though I know I am not always this way, I like to think they’re right. I enjoy believing in positive things. It is said that mindset has a significant effect on the outcome of life’s events, but that sometimes feels difficult to prove.
President Packer’s quote, in a way, just proved it to me. Having hope in some positive outcome – and then approaching it confidently with faith – literally has the power to change things and create an outcome that otherwise could not have happened. God honors our agency so much that He waits for us to act before intervening: He awaits our prayers, our sacrifices, our righteousness, our service, our faith. Then, when He has seen that our agency has been used faithfully, He acts and fulfills every hope that we sought after.
I may be taking this out of context here, but I think that putt in disc golf takes in this principle at least in part. Belief is the forerunner to success, and without it, chance for success drops dramatically. I’ve mentioned before that happiness is a great forerunner to success – well, accompanied with happiness is a firm belief that good things will come. Happy people are hopeful people, and vice versa. Belief is certainly not all we need to be successful; if that were the case, I’d never miss a putt. But certainly, belief is a key component in increasing our chances for success.
So, next time we are faced with a difficult situation, why not approach it with a bit more hope and faith? Why not believe that the project at work will go well? Why not believe we’ll ace that test? Why not believe that our relationships will improve, or our team will win, or the country will make it through political turmoil? Maybe we all need a bit more optimism.
Let us follow the recipe laid out by Elder Wirthlin: to paraphrase, have true faith by having absolute confidence in God, taking action based on that confidence, and having absolute conformity to His will (Oct. 2002 conference report).
I am confident that we will all receive a bit more power and control in our lives when we live with more hope and more faith.
Adam Simpson
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