.faith-tuition-stinct ???

.faith-tuition-stinct ??? - originally written May 15, 2023

Mercury was retrograding around ya girl. Tearing her down, making the energetic space I existed in this past week overall rough, -0/10, Gabi: -987338484 Universe: Infinity, you get the point. But, every other Sunday my sister and I talk on the phone together for our special sister date and she shared with me some of her strongest insights about why I may have struggled this week - I lacked faith. I thought to myself “But, how? I listen to my intuition, I make those instinctive decisions to do things on a whim, isn’t that walking by faith?” The short answer is no, but let’s break it down. 

Instinct, as defined by our girl Britannica, is a natural desire or tendency that makes you want to act in a particular way. We usually see this in behavior; for example, as humans we often jump when we see animals we don’t live with (if you see a snake on your patio, your instinct is to jump ship). Intuition on the other hand, as defined by our girl Merriam Webster, is the faculty of attaining that direct sense of knowing without evident rational interference. For example, you are driving down a major highway during rush hour and to your surprise, where it is typically stopped up, traffic is not as dense that day, BUT your intuition creeps in and tells you to get off at the next exit. Nobody came out from behind the highway guardrail to tell you to get off there, you just trusted your intuition/that gut feeling was going to lead you down a better road - literally :)

Now faith. Hopefully, by this point you’re a little confused, wondering what thread will make faith different from these two terms because I sure as heck was until Sunday. Faith, originally defined by our ancient friend the Bible and redefined by my therapist in layman’s terms for obvious reasons, IS *drumroll please* - the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things unseen; persuasion of the mind that a statement is not only true, but worthy of truth and value. I mean dang! Not only is this powerful, but even more confusing so let’s really break this one down. To be led by faith, is to walk in a direction according to a belief you hold that is uniquely true for you. For example, let’s say you hate your job and know you’re meant to be a small business owner, and at this stage you have 9 months savings to cover all of your basic necessities and then some. You closely hold a belief that now is the time to leave your job and start that business because you know in your heart it is true. This feeling doesn’t leave you alone, it may even torment you. It’s not an instinct because it may in fact may go against your instincts and place you out of our comfort zone. It’s also not intuition because it’s something that could change the trajectory of your entire life (deciding to get off at exit 5 instead of exit 8 will only change your next hour). Faith can challenge us to do really crazy things, and it’s the pinnacle of all things unseen because the belief you hold closely is not true for everyone, in fact it’s probably not true for anyone. SO, when you go around asking others for validation and affirmation to take that “leap of faith” they encourage you to go against your faith. Instead, you settle and life remains meh. Not good, and actually not bad, just meh. 

The point of this is that faith is by far/1000% not only different from instinct and intuition, but it’s the hardest of these three to trust. It’s simple, but complex. It does not add up in the moment but reveals its sense in the future. But we have evidence of people walking by faith all around us and from observation and spiritual calculations - it is so freaking worth it. So as Nike would say, just do it.