MY OUTLOOK OF THE MEANING OF FAITH

Over the last few weeks, I have learned a lot. My first lesson was how there was a difference
between human faith and spiritual faith and how one connected so much to each other. After
reading a Man’s Search for Meaning it opened my mind and made me start to rethink about
different situations in my life. Viktor Frankl lived through a part of history that we only read
about now a day. How he describes everyday living there proves to me he had great faith in
himself and spiritually. Can you image getting on a train to only end up in the one place in the
world you did not want to be. At that very moment I probably would have given up on myself.
Then to wait in line to see whether you were going to basically survive or die. In the book his
writing about his wife and how it got to the point it felt like he could touch her made me tear up.
I could never imagine me not knowing what is going on with my husband if he was alive or
dead. Yet, he is correct because maybe at first, he needed that memory of her to get through his
torture at the camp. The love he had to have for her was a true love. When he realized what the
quote “The salvation of man is through love and in love” meant it must have touched him so
deeply. Love is sometime the only thing that keeps one going. It is amazing feeling to be able to
love and to be loved in return. Everyday Viktor had to work even though he got knocked down
and struggled to get up, but he did because he had faith in myself and spiritually. In the same
situation Vincent de Paul kept moving forward if after he went through a lot of turmoil his life
too. Vincent de Paul kept searching for what God planned for him. Elizabeth Seton kept
searching even though she suffered great loved losses. Each time she picked herself up and
continued to do great work. The story “This is water” was about how in life we perceive
different situations that we are in. If we have a brighter look on life and realize things could be so
much worse that our current situation, we might change our way of thinking and maybe life
would start to change for us. That is how Viktor viewed life he took his most painful part of life
and saw good at the end. Even through his experience he enjoyed humor. Sometimes you must
laugh to just make it through sadness, anger, and just certain situations. The quote “Laughter is
the best medicine” is so true because why it puts a smile on your face. Smiling makes you feel,
gives you hope, and you use less energy. Another reason why I feel Viktor tried to make the best
of his life was because he needed to save his strength for each day so he could survive.
Negativity and sadness make you use so much more energy. Viktor quote “If there is a meaning
in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life,
even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.” The
connection he made through life and suffering was something that I think about often. In later
days for Victor, he uses his meaning of life to help his patients. I always tell my children there is
a reason for everything. There is a consequence for every choice we make, whether it is good or
bad. Even though the Viktor’s book was only during a small-time frame of his life (which
probably seemed eternally to him) you can see how his human development and growth of faith
continued. Which I believe was the meaning behind his search for meaning whether it was for
living or suffering. After reading this book and the other reading in this class has given me hope
and strength in myself. I see how spiritual faith and human faith are so important in our lives. It
gives a reason to smile, laugh, love, and live. We all live through some type of heartbreak,
sadness, or sickness but we don’t all view life the same. Life is what we make of it. We can let it
make us or break us. Hopefully after these last few weeks of readings it will forever change my
heart and view things differently when I am having a bad day, or I feel like giving up. For me it
my husband and children that give me faith in my journey of life.