The Spaz on Faith

You hear it all the time from religious organizations mostly - "You have to have faith."

I've got a problem with faith. Faith is defined as complete confidence or trust in someone or something.

There are things I have faith in. I have faith that my alarm clock will wake me up in the morning. I have faith that the brakes will work in my minivan when I drive my kids to scouts. I have faith that The Man will come home to me every day and I have faith that it will rain almost every afternoon in the summer in South Florida.

These are things that have proven themselves to me over and over again and therefore I have grown to have faith in them.

But that's not the kind of faith that most religions are talking about. They're talking about blind faith. Faith that there is a being somewhere, somehow, that has a plan for your life and knows what you're thinking and is looking out for your best interests.

I'm not the oldest and wisest person around, but in my 38 years I've learned that if anyone's going to have a plan for my life or look out for my best interests, it's got to be me. Not God, not my parents, not The Man. I'm the only one who can do it for myself.

So no, I don't believe there is a spiritual higher power that gives even the tiniest care whether I win the lottery or get hit by a bus tomorrow. I don't think anyone is keeping score as to whether I've been a good person or a bad person or made the right decisions in my life and I certainly don't think there's a magical mansion in the sky waiting for me when I die if I choose to believe that line of bull.

It's up to me and only me to do the right thing and make the best decisions for myself. My reward for that is to end up in the places I want to end up and to become the person I am happiest being. What happens when this life is all over is an unknown that no one's ever going to know. It's not important.

The only thing that matters is making the right choices now.