A way of looking at the world can change after a night’s sleep. Some mornings we can wake up and everything in the world is shining and there is a veil of happiness; other mornings, doom and gloom, for no particular reason at all. In a more sophisticated way, we can be motivated by wages, the service of people, and, most importantly, hold the teachings and will of Christ in our hearts.

The perspective of Christians should be on Christ rather than Christianity. This is to say that our perspective needs to be aligned with the person and relationship we have with Christ. In contrast, we must not have our perspective aligned with the impersonal set of rules, doctrine, and theology of the church without first thinking of the person of Christ. The trap of the impersonal focus on Christianity is that we focus on the wrong thing: abstract bits and pieces that are applied in our lives that forget the very roots. It’s like copying out the letters of a foreign language without knowing what any of it means.

We must wait patiently for God’s plan. It can come overnight and we must be patient. By God’s will, we must trust and faithfully work as he guides us to larger milestones. The work is incremental and we might not notice, but there can be some drastic change we must be ready for at some critical mass. Since change can happen at any point, we have to appreciate the present. Things may seem monotonous but we can miss those days. We must value every day, minute, and second. And we have to work gratefully and diligently.

I try to be ambitious, whatever that means. I try to do the most in order to maximize what talents God blesses me with. But an issue I run into is having too many goals and having a fear of missing out. It’s important to maximize many talents and it might be possible if you delegate enough. You also need to make a game of being as fast and efficient as possible. All of this is also a fear of regret.

Life is short and we must remember we all die. We can take for granted that time passes and be passive until we face regret. Still, we cannot fear not achieving everything as this is a form of pride; we cannot believe that we are in any control of our lives and entitled to a kind of life. We must humble ourselves to the Lord and trust that we will live the best kind of life without any regret. The Christian life has no room for regret since we are fulfilling our true purpose–everything else pales in comparison.

As we live a Christian life, we always have to push hard and have a fighting spirit. We need to push through discomfort and be disciplined. Fortunately, with God, we have a good life and we can naturally push into these uncomfortable areas with a learning mindset and desire for knowledge. We can seek the truth and the tough road it takes to attain it. It gives us a tough day to come home and rest with satisfaction. We must commit to something, which means not committing to another thing. The opportunity cost.

Faith is the core of religion and has a bad reputation for being opposed to rationality. Faith is not irrational, as commonly understood. It is a leap after proper deliberation and forms a commitment in the areas that lack complete certainty. Complete certainty is often a lot more difficult to attain, especially with the scientific method. We aim for probabilities and inferences that are consistent with some base axioms. But we need not worry ourselves with questions of justifications among Christians. That’s the concern for natural theology.

There’s so much written on the topic of faith that it’s hard to add anything new; so, I’ll only share what I know, is unique to me, and I have experienced. Being faithful for me is always connecting everything in our lives to Christ. We give thanks first thing in the morning for continued life. The game that we get to play is insignificant from the eternal point of view. However, every action we take can have eternal ripples and we have to use every opportunity to serve God and glorify Christ. Faithfulness is directing all our actions toward Christ. We are the sacrifice: every hour, minute, and second. At the same time, we need not have an obsession based on some anxiety that we’ll be forgotten otherwise. Our eternal creator is faithful to us.

We can practice this virtue by being faithful to people. We can also be faithful to principles. It should be that order, however, because people should be our priority for serving God. He commands us to love others, not love rules. Rules are a guide to shape us to be loving. We have to keep loyal and steadfast in serving people. We have to remain trusting and confident that God will guide us towards the right people and that serving people will be a part of the great plan. And we have to be loyal to our relationships and love others fully.

Being faithful is ultimately a relational term. It is what binds us to one another. The precious relationship we have with Christ affects every part of us. It penetrates us through and through to the point that every decision in this life is understood through our relation to Christ.

Hope is the calming ointment from faith. Hope is also an act of faith and is tethered to the ultimate commitment of faith. Hope strives towards the eternity that is promised and that we cannot fully comprehend. Like a ticket of our faith, we hold onto hope and we experience the joy with Christ in anticipation of knowing him more. When we feel lost, we need to have hope. When we feel we are weak or alone, we must have hope. In the darkest times, we have to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. The relationship we have in Christ is unbreakable and perfect.

Hope overcomes the world. Any pain, strife, or trouble can be overcome by the hope we have in Christ. All is insignificant compared to the hope we have in eternity. We endure and wait as patient servants. Hope is has a direction: it points to our faith in Christ. Hope gives us the joy of desire and anticipation. We can have the safety net below us and we can always trust that our future will be good. Perhaps not comfortable, but good.

Being steadfast is understood in terms of resolution or being unwavering. We need this attitude towards our faith. It is not always easy to keep our faith in the center of our minds, even though it is the center of our lives. We have to have the right priority in being steadfast. The way we have to be steadfast in our work has to be in virtue of our faith, and not in the work alone. All the historical heroes are steadfast in their goals. They are steadfast in their mission through every trial or tribulation. We have to stay focused but focused in the right way. All other distractions get to draw us away.

It’s a commitment, loyalty, or faith in the Lord and his plan for us. We can never know if what we do is right or wrong or productive or completely silly. Our conception of what is correct is so often completely wrong, so we should lean on the Lord. That is our Archimedean point. We will be firmly fixed and not change in belief or determination. Like a servant or warrior, we will be moved and trust that we will grow to be sons and friends in the end. We have to grow.