Last week, I launched this new weekly feature of the blog. What does faith on Friday mean?

It means that for many of us, it’s easy to have faith on Sundays, when we’re in church, perhaps, surrounded by people who believe at least a little what we do. It’s probably easy to have faith while we’re singing worship songs or timeless hymns, or praying together, or taking part in Eucharist.

But then we go out into the real world, with people who don’t believe what we do and with people who are actively hostile to our faith. The world is not designed to foster an easy growth of faith; in fact, we know for sure that it can be just the opposite. The cares and worries and challenges can erode us until we’re clinging by the thinnest thread to what seemed so clear on Sunday.

So how do we keep the faith when it seems impossible to find? I don’t have tons of answers. I know talking about what’s hard sometimes helps. Realizing that I’m not alone is always comforting. Reading about how others are coping is encouraging, too. And reaching out to lift up others who might be struggling, too, always ends up helping me as much as it does them, if not more.

Realizing.

Reading.

Reaching.

Hey, I didn’t even plan that. But for those of us who are people of faith, that’s not surprising, because we know that the plans of He who is greater than us are far better than our own.