Sixtysomething – Season 2, Episode 23: Faith in Something Can Save You

60s_S2_Ep23_Faith

[00:00:00] Hi, my friends. Welcome back to 60 something. I'm Grace. And today we're diving into a subject that is both, again, deeply personal and I think universal. It's faith. Faith in God. Faith in yourself. Faith in love or beauty or justice or creativity, faith in something. I wanna make a case for why faith, however you define it, isn't just a nice to have.

Like George Michael always said, you gotta have faith. The faith, the faith. Faith, the faith. Faith. It's essential, especially for those of us in this wonderful wild [00:01:00] chapter. Of life after 60. Lemme tell you a little story. I was sitting at my kitchen table drinking my morning coffee. Dorothy at my feet and reading my daily devotional and I started thinking about how many times faith has pulled me through.

Something in that daily devotional just reminded me and it not just of my faith in God, though that's been my foundation my entire life, but also my faith in happiness. In goodness that love matters and that the tough moments of life don't last forever and don't have to last long. Love can override all of that.

Please indulge me in this. My Christianity saved my [00:02:00] life, guided me to a way to be. Reunited with my children when we were separated in the aftermath of a destructive divorce when they were very young. Saw me through many rejections from friends and family members due to mistakes I made when I was young.

And stupid. And by the way, I still make mistakes way too many. Every major turning point in my life has had one thing in common. I believed in something, someone much bigger than whatever my immediate circumstances might be. I share these thoughts with you, but I wanna make sure you know. That I respect your beliefs, whatever they may be.

The case I'm making is that you need [00:03:00] faith. So I talk about this now. In our sixties and beyond. Why is it important? Well, because life after 60 throws you a lot of curve balls. Health scares the loss of people we love in one way or another, feeling invisible or irrelevant in a fast changing world.

Retirement identity shifts and sometimes just that. Creeping feeling of what now? Faith is the antidote to all of that. It gives you a reason to get up in the morning. It helps you navigate uncertainty. It keeps your heart soft, your brain curious, and your soul young. When we lose faith, we start to [00:04:00] feel adrift and faith.

Doesn't look the same for everyone. For some faith is in a higher power, a religious tradition. For others, it's faith in a principle like love, kindness, art, and self-expression, nature, justice, family. And for some it's a quiet, steady faith in themselves. I can handle. Whatever comes next. I've made it this far and I'm not done yet.

There's something about faith that actually keeps us younger at heart. Think about children. They just naturally believe. They expect good things, and as we grow older, life chips away at that, doesn't it? Faith is how we reclaim that sense of awe. [00:05:00] Faith inspires you to try new things. It gets you off the couch when it would be easier to just sit there and watch tv.

It helps you forgive and release bitterness, which let's face it, is an aging serum for the soul, if ever there was one. Maybe you are listening and you're thinking, I don't feel much faith in anything right now. Well, I can relate to that. My faith in God is unshakeable at this point, but my faith in everything else well.

It gets shaky too often, as you know, if you've listened to this podcast for a while, but that's okay. We're human beings, right? So back to the drawing board. To start again. To e establish faith in something you. Here's how you might wanna begin to start [00:06:00] small. Ask yourself, what do I still find beautiful, inspiring.

Worthy of trust. Practice noticing. Sit in nature, look at a sunset. Watch a little child playing. Let yourself believe that goodness still exists. Read stories of resilience, biographies, memoirs, people who o over overcame odds. That can be like a jumper cable for your own faith. Connect with people who have it.

Faith is contagious. Try prayer or meditation even if you don't know who you're praying to. Just opening that channel can be powerful if you already have faith, but wanna deepen it, make time for it. Whatever your faith practice is, prayer, [00:07:00] yoga, walks, riding, make sure you give it space in your day. Protect it.

Watch your inputs. Too much doom. Scrolling Can eat faith for breakfast, express gratitude. Gratitude and faith go hand in hand. Keep a record. I have a journal where I write down answered prayers. Happy coincidences. That I see as miracles. The times things worked out, even when I couldn't see how faith and self, let me just say this, because I don't think we say it enough, especially at our age, sometimes the most radical form of faith is faith in yourself, believing you still have something to offer.

Believing that you can start over, even at age [00:08:00] 60 or 70 or 80, believing you can change your health, your mindset, your habits. I'm attempting all of that right now in my own life with my husband. Yes, with my dog, my family, in my work, even in this podcast, faith. It doesn't take away the pain, but it can transform how you carry it.

And when you have faith in something, whatever that something is, it can save you. It can make you bold enough to keep trying. It can keep you tender at heart when the disappointments wanna harden your heart. So here's my challenge for you. Figure it out. What do you have faith in? And if you don't [00:09:00] know right now, what's one tiny little thing you can believe in today?

Write now. Just pick one thing. Write it down. Say it out loud. I believe in this now. Live every day. Like you really believe it. You know, fake it till you make it if you have to, until it becomes I rained in your identity, huh? Thanks for spending this time with me today. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who might need a reminder that faith big or small or small is a mustard seed.

It can change everything. I'll see you next time on 60 something. Until then, [00:10:00] keep the faith, my friends.