Is It A Faith, Or Is It A Lifestyle?

By: Steve Leland

A couple of decades ago, I bought a book about the American Indian. I was interested in the various cultures that different tribes had. I would love to quote the book by its title and credit the author. But alas, that has faded down old memory holes.

What made me sit up and take notice was the section on religion. The statement was made that they didn’t have a religion, that it was all about their lifestyle. Or, to state it differently, that their religion was something that they lived, not something that they practiced. Some of that seemed a bit off to me. I mean, just the idea of having a shaman seems counter indicative, but I digress.

The concept, though, was hitting home in my own life. Of course, I don’t practice religion, that’s how you describe other people’s beliefs. Ours is a “faith,” right?

Ok, but is that faith something that I practice? Or is it a lifestyle? Is my faith something that I filter life through? Or is it something that I access when things get hard? Or worse, is it something that I forget about until after things get so bad that I am in despair and my faith is the only thing that I have left to hold on to?

Let’s make our faith the filter that we see all of life through, that we live our lives through. Let’s walk hand in hand with our Heavenly Father, enjoying both the good and the bad with Him as opposed to running to Him when things get too rough for us to handle.

By: Steve Leland