Faith

 The faith of a child will not sustain many a person once they reach their mid-teens.  Yet this is all most of them and adults get from organized religion.  A child is protected from a lot of harshness in life, or else it has not reached them yet.  We give them holy card images, warm fuzzy bible stories, statues, pictures, first holy communion and it sustains them in their imaginations.  By the age of 16 life can become harsh and stressful for a person.  What to to with my life?  Do I have loyal friends, fit in, am I handsome or pretty enough?  Childhood faith won’t sustain them, but they have little else, so we begin to hear then say, “I don’t want to go to church,” or “I have lost my faith.”  Childhood faith was filled with assurances.  That is not faith for an adult, if it is faith at all.  Faith is when you feel empty, abandoned, alone with yourself, unsure, and yet believe, as in “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”