“Father Help Me Acknowledge You” featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album “I Look Up To The Heavens” recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson

Last week I began to share an article “Unleash a Greater Power” that Bear wrote in the magazine GQ. Here is the final part:

For many years I tried to do without it (faith that is) I tried to be strong only in myself but the truth is that I I’m not – I need a helping hand, a peace within and a quiet assurance for my future. I have finally found the courage to admit that my longing for this life within me is stronger than the fear of what others may think. I am no longer too proud to admit that I need my Saviour beside me.

Does that make my faith a crutch? Maybe but what does a crutch do? It helps you stand and makes you stronger. So yes when I face overwhelming odds I need a bit of that. And when I look at my own heroes, like my late father or Nelson Mandela I realise that there aren’t many of them who at some time quietly bent their knee and looked outside themselves for strength, resolve and peace.

Personally I find faith in Christianity. You might find it elsewhere. The name we give it is less important that the outpouring that comes from it. Faith helps us to be kinder and more adventurous than we imagined, to care and encourage, to love and inspire. It’s about finding our mojo and I believe it is hard to do that without some spiritually.

To those who feel cynical about such a message, I hear you but just as it is easier to have faith in the Southern Ocean it’s also easier to be cynical when everything is going your way. To have faith in our everyday takes courage. All too often it is the tougher path, but life and the wild have taught me that the tougher path often ends up being the most fulfilling one.

Pioneers always take bold steps to explore new territory because they never know where it may lead them. Every fresh challenge offers new opportunities for you to develop your adventurous spirit and inner strength- so be brave, embrace faith wherever you may find it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Of course one question to come from this article is that although Bear is encouraging people to have faith in more than simply ourselves, and he himself has a Christian faith – does that mean that faith in something other than Jesus, for example another religious faith is sufficient- as long as it is faith?  I suppose the answer to that question would be, who or what can we have faith in that is more worthy of that faith than Jesus?