Faith is the operating principle of life. Everything we do we do by faith. When you sit down in a chair you have faith that the chair will support you and you will not fall to the floor. [[Trust]] and faith are often thought of synonymously, but trust is only a component of faith. Our beliefs tend to determine what we trust; if you don't trust something then you don't truly believe it. Faith is larger than believing and trusting, to be faithful you have to be reliable but more so you take a [[risk]] with faith. Trust is a choice. Faith is a way of life. The faithful man acts without thinking because his beliefs are firm, he trusts what he believes and that enables him to take action without second guessing. We take risk when we choose to trust something, but the risk we take when we place our faith in someone or something is larger. >"Faith is not trying to believe something regardless of the evidence; faith is daring something regardless of the consequences." - Sherwood Eddy Trust can be won or lost, but faith is forever. Trust and reputation are said to be like a bank account where you can only deposit a dollar at a time but the withdrawals are always for the full account balance. Faith, however goes beyond trust in terms of its object and duration. When we believe that our hopes and desires will be fulfilled without seeing the evidence of it, that is faith. We tend to trust in what we can see, feel, or smell; but faith extends beyond our senses and history into the unknown and intangible future. ## Investing is an Act of Faith Whether it is your time, talents, or money what you choose to do with those resources is an investment and when you invest you should expect to get a return on it. This is not just a capitalist's hope but it is something deeply spiritual and philosophical. When describing the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus told a parable about a master who praised his servants who invested his money and returned with more but scolded the one who was too afraid to take risk and buried the treasure instead. We are given gifts and we are intended to put them to use, to covet them and be overly protective of them is to miss the point of life. I have always considered the topics of economics, finance, and investing to be deeply philosophical. Adam Smith and David Hume, some of our greatest economists, were philosophers. The concept of money and the [[Time Value of Money]] have large elements of science to them, but also leave us philosophical questions to ponder. The idea of giving and receiving is a moral question at its core. ## How Volatility Tests our Faith When we [[Trust]] our experiences over our faith we expose ourselves to the volatility of existence. The volatility of experience tests our patience in the promise of increased wealth from [[The Volatility Drain#The Magic of Compounding|compounding returns.]] Whether it’s in our portfolios or in our habits, the volatility of experience shifts our gaze from the hope of the future to the [[Uncertainty]] of the present where our fear and ego take over. **Case Studies** - [[CHG Issue 191 Great Minds Think Alike]] - [[CHG Issue 130 Discerning Expertise]] - [[CHG Issue 104 Ego]] - [[CHG Issue 38 Faith]] Explore Further: [[Truth-Seeking]] | [[Risk]] Tags: #evergreen #Principles Your support for Cedars Hill Group is greatly appreciated <form action="https://www.paypal.com/donate" method="post" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="74PGN8ZXHQVHS" /> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" title="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" alt="Donate with PayPal button" /> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1" /> </form>