What is faith?

The title of the blog has a little to do with what I will be writing about. I just received a heart felt email from a friend who was checking up on me and my "path of faith". We had a great conversation the beginning of my first year of medical school (about a year ago) that had to do with religion and faith and my relationship with God. As you can already tell, it was a pretty deep conversation. But it was well needed. At the time, I was struggling with a few things not really concerning my faith in God but with my faith in people. We talked about my struggle to really accept the fact that non-believers in Christ will quote unquote go to a place we call hell. First off, I am Catholic and was raised in a Catholic household. So, yes, I do believe there is good and evil present in our world, and in my mind, evil resides in a place called hell. However, I really have a difficult time digesting the fact that some people feel that all non-believers will go to hell. Growing up and educated in a Baptist school, we were always told that if you didn't believe in God, you were going to hell. I always had a problem with this because I constantly meet people who are great individuals and who are kind hearted and good souls, but yet do not believe in Christ. My reasoning on this is that they may have different religious views. They may not believe in my God, but they may have a "God" themselves. Who am I to tell them that my God is better or different than theirs? Who knows? They may be different interpretations of the same thing!

Needless to say, our conversation ended without a resolution. However, the conversation helped churn the wheels in my head about maintaining my faith. Part of this is my responbility to keep asking questions about God and how I can strengthen my relationship with Him. I was invited to my first prayer meeting with other medical students and from there came many many prayer groups and meetings. Although I still struggle with the same problems and questions I had at this initial conversation, I feel I may be getting somewhere with my goal. Some Christians may feel that living a life free of sin is the ultimate goal in life. I see things differently, because I think we are only humans and may strive to be perfect like God but fall short many times. But God knows this! He didn't make us from his own image to be perfect beings. He gave us the gift of choice and although we may make bad choices at times, He is loving and He forgives always. If there was one thing that I have learned from my journey of faith in the past year, it would be that God is always there for me. Although I may have a slanted view about faith and religion, that may be different than the books, I know and understand the big picture. He loves me always and will always forgive. And this is what keeps me praying and thanking Him everyday.