Keeping Faith

Written by Maggie Ferguson, Cathedral Girls Choir

I feel like so many of us are always searching for the right way to follow God. The one true way that will show God, those around us, and ourselves that we are truly in through it all, in sickness and in health. But something that I have come to understand more during the past year, and especially during the past few months, is the great flexibility of faith.

Faith is always changing and shifting and molding. I need my faith when I am struggling with something in my life. I need my faith when I am too stressed out to accomplish anything. I need my faith when I am deep within a storm that makes me think I may never see the sun again. That doesn’t mean that I don’t need my faith when everything is smooth sailing. That doesn’t mean that I don’t need my faith when everything seems to be falling right into place. I need my faith at all times because I need my God at all times. It just looks different.

One day during the height of the pandemic lockdown, I went for a walk in less than ideal weather. I’m still not sure what compelled me to leave the warmth and dryness of my home and drag myself and my dog out into the pouring rain and growing storm, but I am so glad I did. As I was walking and getting more and more soaked, my mind kept coming back to a song called “Praise You In This Storm” by Casting Crowns; a song about staying faithful to God during difficult times. For those of you who know me, you may know that my faith is irrevocably linked to music, so this song being placed on my heart was impactful. I then just started talking, out loud and to God. I prayed aloud for an hour, for everyone and everything I could think of. I prayed because I had to. I prayed because it was all that I could do and I felt lifted higher and closer to God than I had felt in a long time. I prayed during the peak of my school-related stress, and for an hour during a storm, I was at peace. My faith delivered. It may be more desperate in rough times, and it may be more grateful in smooth times, but no expression of faith denotes that I need my God any more or less.

I know God because there has been no other option that can compare to His love time and time again, but my faith still changes. The faith that I possessed when I was in middle school is much different than the faith I possess now in high school. It has to be; I am different now than I was then. I have learned that you can’t grow out of faith because you can’t grow out of God. We crave knowing God at all ages and stages of life.

By being faithful, we grow into God. When you grow into God, you spread God into the people and the world around you. This is one of my favorite aspects of the Church and of Jesus. In striving to be like Christ, we are compelled to teach, love, welcome, and accept others. Our need to share our abundance with the rest of the world stretches all boundaries of life because God’s love is universal. Simply as a consequence of God’s love to us and our faith to Him, the people around us are gifted with a deeper love than can otherwise be experienced. It is a privilege to keep learning that more and more everyday.