Over thousands of years of human history, we, as a race, have experienced plagues and pandemics that have wiped out hundreds of thousands of people. They have swept through countries and territories, taking livestock, children, mothers, priests and princes alike. If you had a family at the time, you may have lost two sons and your wife. You might have only had your two daughters left to you. But you were not the only one. Nobody went untouched.
These were dark times, full of suffering, pain, misery, and with much wailing filling the streets. There are stories during the black plague of priests performing last rites day and night, and comforting the afflicted, knowing that they too would need their own rites and to be comforted by others.
Think of the terrible amount of pain and suffering the head of a family might have experienced. Now think of everybody in that generation experiencing something similar. Every family being stricken, having lost from one to three members.
What survived?
The church survived. But also the faith.
If faith can survive that, over and over throughout human history, then it has already proven itself as a valid method for keeping on. It is a tool in the human psychological and emotional toolbox that is as old as mankind, proven to be trustworthy. Proven to be very human.
And it is still thriving.
Faith is just as valuable as any drug, or any psychological treatment program. Not just valuable, but something that has held its value through era after era. It has retained its worth, like a stock that has never faltered or bottomed out.
I dare say faith is the most valuable asset a man can possess. Without faith, a man is less-than what his maximum potential might be. He is unprepared for loss, for heartbreak, for sufferings, for traumas. A man without faith is a man whose mental toolbox is missing a hammer, or a screwdriver, or some other essential tool. When or of the time comes that they will need this tool, it will not be there for them.
The same could be said of war. Generation after generation have lost untold amounts of men and children to the rigors of world wars, tribal wars, and civil wars. Single battles have taken up to 25,000 lives or more, over and over again.
What has survived?
Faith has survived. The church has survived. A belief in God has survived, but even more remarkable than that, a belief in a GOOD God has survived and flourished all over the planet.
There has never been a problem of evil for faith.
Faith is going to survive war and pandemics. It is going to survive atheism and socialism. It is going to survive false religions and civil uprisings and national disturbances. It will survive riots, commotions, elections and upheavals of all manner.
And if you are human, and count yourself as one of us, you are going to need it, too. It is the most valuable and precious resource on the planet.
Don’t be afraid to be human, to have faith. You may need it some day.
In fact, I know you will. Don’t be caught sleeping on faith.
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