What Sustains You Through the Good and the Bad?

This piece is a compilation of more than a dozen quotes about fear, belief and how the two impact each other. The title phrase – When You Believe – is the theme song from the animated motion picture Prince of Egypt. It has some of my favorite lyrics. When I saw the movie I knew that one day I would use these words in a piece.

It is easy to be fearful. Fear is all around us. Every devices, television, news report and media outlet is constantly bombarding us with the latest horrible thing that is happening in the world. If you don’t watch the news then the internet or someone will tell you what is rotten, and horrifying, and what you should be afraid of today. Spreading the bad news is always a popular topic of conversation.

Being positive, having faith, and truly believing in something is a much greater task. Faith is daring to believe in the unseen, the unknown, the undone, and the future. Believing means that no matter what anyone else tells you or the story the facts might convey you choose to believe anyway. It isn’t always logical or factual. Believing in someone, something or an ideal comes from deep within our soul. Faith and belief is the power that drives beyond the facts and daily statistics; it is the idea that won’t die and the passion that drives relentlessly towards the finish line. It is also the thing that gets people tagged as crazy, unrealistic, idealistic, a dreamer or just plain stupid.

Daring to have faith and believe in something means having courage beyond the logical. Today may be the day when you have to muster up the courage to believe and sustain your belief in what drives you forward. Not everyone will understand and some people in your world may let you know you are crazy. If they do you are in good company. Inventors, explorers, scientists and people of faith have always thought and acted differently than the crowds. At first they are laughed at, then they are persecuted, eventually they are endorsed and praised as courageous heroes. Maybe today is the day that you need to be reminded that “crazy” is a relative term even when uttered by one of your relatives.

Hooray for the crazy believers who have the courage to sustain their dreams with action. What do you believe in enough to put up with all that and more until you see it all come to fruition? I hope you have something you believe in enough to sustain you through the good times and the bad time.