What does real faith mean? By that I mean Christian faith. You can have faith in anything, i.e. - I have faith I won't get into a car accident this morning; I have faith I'm going to be rich someday; I have faith that my spouse will stay faithful to me till death; I have faith that when I lose a tooth, the Tooth Fairy gets me cool cash.

But how does that faith get rewarded? Some day you might be the safest driver in the world, but the guy in the car that hits yours may not be. Does that shatter your faith in being safe while driving? For some, yes, it does.

You might have faith you're going to be rich someday, but what's the standard for success? How much money equals "rich"? Is it a worthy goal to become a millionaire on your deathbed? Further, if you make poor financial decisions and are racked with debt, you can't have faith you'll be rich if you're not a good steward of your money.

Too many people find themselves in an unhappy marriage, or a deceptively happy one, and when they hear of their spouse's unfaithfulness, it usually rattles them to the core. You put so much faith in your spouse, and when that faith is shaken, it seems the roof is caving in. One day, everyone will let us down in little ways, and some big ways, so putting faith in even a spouse can be shaken.

And dang, there were times my parents forgot when I lost a tooth, and all I got was pillow lint.

So faith in stuff like that can be shaken. But what does it mean to have faith in a supreme being that is invisible? And what do you do when your faith is shaken, and that being does not poof out of thin air to reassure you? What do we have to hold on to with our faith in anything is shaken?

Let this be clear: all of us have faith in SOMETHING. If you have no faith that you will be safe in driving down the road, or will be taken care of if an accident occurs, what happens? You most likely won't ever want to drive. Therefore, all of us have a degree of faith that we'll get where we're going unscathed.

Or we have a good job that provides for our needs. We have to have faith that each day of going into the office is going to be worthwhile, or else you may not want to go anymore. This is where faith and hope are intertwined - if you have no hope that what you're about to do is worthwhile, you probably won't do it.

But enough of the common sense and reasoning. Faith in the God of the Bible is a powerful tool for those whose faith is shaken in everything else in life. It is there when we put faith in our spouse and they leave us for another. It is there when we believe only in ourselves, until we fail mightily, or our ability to take care of ourselves is lost to injury or old age. And it is there when we claim to have blind faith in nothing - because it takes faith to believe God does NOT exist.

But there are times when our own understanding fails. Where then do we turn?

There is so much restlessness, loneliness, and hostility in this world. Sadness and evil are everywhere. If we don't have something to hope for, we become fearful, cynical, and pessimistic. Or we place false hope in things that don't last.

There is certainly a need for rest, for healing, for power, that the world can't offer. If you asked me what would heal the world, I would say belief in Jesus Christ.

A suicidal man at the cusp of ending his life would find justification if he were a mere organism that evolved from a single cell, that just happened to survive up until that point. He is one of billions; he won't be missed.

But what encourages him to embrace life is a hope that a savior love him and cares for him, to teach the man that life is worth living, even if you have nothing else but Jesus.

I'll speak the name of Jesus often because there has been no one like Him in the history of the world. There have been teachers, philosophers, scholars, and religious figures that have sought powerful knowledge, legions of worshipers, and fame beyond their death - but none have equaled Jesus Christ.

He showed up and turned the skeptical, legalistic world on its ear. He silenced the Pharisees, the very people who were supposed to relate the common people to God - because they instead took their status to puff themselves up.

You will see that when a false cause is presented to you, it either contains a disregard of other people (only taking care of yourself/harming others for the sake of a higher being), or a distorted version of the truth (Jesus + Joseph Smith, Jesus + Jehovah's witnesses, Jesus + a cult, Jesus + Muhammed in Islam, Jesus + the sixties free love movement).

What it comes down to is this: is your faith, your truth, based in something that benefits you and others around you? Does it only serve yourself? Or does it actually cause damage?

And even if you believe in Jesus, do you believe in and share it in a way that damages others?

Without Jesus, there isn't much to comfort you when everyone around you is either taken away, or walks away from you at times in your life. No hope for a new, healed body in Heaven when your body in this life starts to fail. No clear reason to assist others because, without the greatest commandment of loving God, and also of loving others, you could technically live your life only to please yourself while so many die in poverty. But with that hope that Jesus has saved us, and loves us regardless of anything we do, we can be forgiven for horrible offenses we commit. We can hope for healing in our hearts after the world and its people have hurt you.

Be wary of "truth" that does not come with love, but with arrogance. God is smarter than the tons of voices that scream for our attention. All manner of distractions in the media and people we know. God is the voice you must take time and pay attention to. God is gentle, and He opposes the proud individuals who often further their own points at the expense of another. Will you listen to someone who sounds pretty slick and derides others, or are you going to listen to a plain and simple savior to left a life of love that we all must follow?

God gave us all free will. What we do with it is up to us. May that decision be one that gives praise to and works for the God who made us out of love, and the savior in Jesus that demonstrated that love.