So you stand looking, deeply, at the painting in front of you and see a world spilled onto the canvas.

Each stroke tells a story. A world has poured through the artist’s filter. What you see is a gift.

But if you walk in closer and closer and closer to that painting…

And you stick your eye right up to it as close as you can get it…

You won’t see much.

You’ll see a splotch of color and that’s it.

In creeps the fear.

I thought I was supposed to be seeing something amazing?

But you’re far too close to see anything.

You’re consumed by that one little bit of color and can’t see anything else. There’s nothing but what’s quite literally right in front of you.

You’re blind.

You have to step back to regain that view. You have to step back to see the beauty. You have to step back to see that intention this wonderful piece was painted with.

That’s called perspective.

And, with perspective, comes sight.

But faith is something different entirely.

Faith is taking so many steps back that you don’t see much at all. You don’t see the painting, the room, the people in the room, the building…

You just keep stepping farther and farther and farther back.

And all you’re left with is a feeling. You’re left with this knowing that there is a painting there…but you just can’t quite see it yet. You know there’s beauty there, you just have to walk closer and closer to it to discover it.

If I’m honest with you, my faith disintegrated as the years went on and only started to make its recovery. That relationship with what I believe is deeply personal, but here’s what I can tell you.

There is always something greater than ourselves.

The moment.

The energy.

The heavens.

The stars.

The universe.

There is far more than we can comprehend.

But faith…faith is knowing that while we do not currently comprehend it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. That just because we cannot see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Throughout time, what was once deemed impossible has been debunked over and over again. The great men and women of our history have taken it upon themselves to bring the ideas that once were just a whisper in their minds to life.

That took faith.

That took belief.

As I walk through this life, I’ve started to understand more and more than the future holds those great paintings that I’ve never even considered before. Each of them tells a story. Each holds an opportunity to explore something I have not before. What I have dreamed of and seen in my mind is possible. It’s possible with faith.

Now I just have to walk with belief.

Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project