Meaningful Words from Mitch Albom's Have A Little Faith

I am not a religious person, I don't go to Church every Sunday, I don't have a rosary and I don't do the sign of the cross. However, I do believe in God, I believe in the Bible, and all that's written in it. I always tell myself and other people that my faith is stronger than any dogma, doctrine or tradition set by any religion. But as I went home one day, I noticed an advertisement pasted on the back of a bus, similar to this:

Some say that the World, as we know it, will end (?) on May 21, 2011, Saturday. I simply dismissed it as some religious folly, remembering that verse in the Bible stating that not even Jesus know when he will return, so how come this guys know? I can talk about it to some officemates or friends, or discuss it on some forum, and all I'll get is an endless argument on the existence of God and the authenticity of the Bible; and most of all, about faith.

A year ago, I would have thought different about faith. But after I read Mitch Albom's Have A Little Faith, I re-evaluated what I believe in. I questioned my own faith, and challenged myself how I strongly cling to it. Up to know, these words written on that book still linger in my head.

"Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe."

"Lord, I've done x amount of good stuff on earth. I have tried to follow your teachings and to pass them on. I have loved my family, I've been part of a community. And I have been, I think, fairly good to people. So, Heavenly Father, for all this, what is my reward? And what do you think God will say? ... He'll say, 'Reward? What reward? That's what you were supposed to do!'"

"I am in love with hope."'

"You should be convinced of the authenticity of what you have, but you must also be humble enough to say that we don't know everything. And since we don't know everything, we must accept that another person may believe something else."

"And is often the case with faith, I thought I was being asked a favor, when in fact I was being given one."

"You're not listening with your eyes."

"When you come to the end, that's where God begins."

"The most inspirational man I knew only reached his potential by helping a child reach his."

"It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody’s out there."

"Nothing haunts like the things we don't say."

"But you must be humble enough to say that we don't know everything. And since we don't know everything, we must accept that another person may believe something else."

"You might find another woman, but you will never find your wife."

"The Reb, I'd learned, was like a tough tree; he bent with storms but he would not snap."

"If we tend to the things that are important in life, if we are right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. Our words will always be sincere, our embraces will be tight. We will never wallow in the agony of 'I could have, I should have.' We can sleep in a storm... And when it's time, our goodbyes will be complete."

"The nurse gave him his pills. On her way out, he whispered after her. 'Please...if you turn off the lights, could you stop by once in a while and remember I'm here?'"

"I am neither better nor smarter, only luckier. And I should be ashamed of thinking I know everything because you can know the whole world and still feel lost in it. So many people are in pain – no matter how smart or accomplished – they cry, they yearn, they hurt. But instead of looking down on thing, they look up, which is where I should be looking too. Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: Comfort, love and a peaceful heart."

"Did you feel guilty cursing God - you, of all people?

'No,' he said. 'Because even in doing so, I was recognizing there was a greater power than me.'

He paused.

'And that is how I began to heal.'"

"If the only thing wrong with Moses is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with Jesus is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with mosques, Lent, chanting, Mecca, Buddha, confession, or reincarnation is that they're not yours - well, maybe the problem is you."

"If you could pack for heaven, this was how you'd do it, touch everything, take nothing."

"In any conversation, I was taught, there are three parties: You, the other person and God"

"Remember, the only difference between 'marital' and 'martial' is where you put the 'i'"

"Here on earth, falling is less dramatic. You drift. You wander off."

"There was a sermon where he brought a squash and a piece of wood, then slammed each with a knife to show that things which grow quickly are often more easily destroyed than those which take a long time."

"He had a way of looking you in the eye and making you feel the world had stopped and you were all that was in it."

"Upon retirement, he voluntarily moved out of his large office and into a smaller one."

"Personally, I always wondered about authors and celebrities who loudly declared there was no god. It was usually when they were healthy and popularand being listened to by crowds. What happens, I wondered, in the quiet moments before death? By then, they have lost the stage, the world has moved on. If suddenly, in their last gasping moments, through fear, a vision, a late enlightenment, they change their minds about God, who would know?"

"To think that you died and no one would remember you. I wondered if this was why we tried so hard to make our mark in America. To be known. Think of how important celebrity has become. We sing to get famous; expose our worst secrets to get famous; lose weight, eat bugs, even commit murder to get famous. Our young people post their deepest thoughts on public Web sites. They run cameras from their bedrooms. It's as if we are screaming, Notice me! Remember me! Yet the notoriety barely lasts. Names quickly blur and in time are forgotten."

"Having more does not keep you from wanting more. And if you always want more-to be richer, more beautiful, more well known-you are missing the bigger picture, and I can tell you from experience, happiness will never come."

"Because one thing God gave us—and I’m afraid it’s at times a little too much—is free will. Freedom to choose. I believe he gave us everything needed to build a beautiful world, if we choose wisely."

"But we can also choose badly. And we can mess things up something awful."

"You can't work your way into heaven. Anytime you try and justify yourself with works, you disqualify yourself with works. What I do here, every day, for the rest of my life, is only my way of saying, 'Lord, regardless of what eternity holds for me, let me give something back to you. I know it don't even no scorecard. But let me make something of my life before I go...'"

"It's the blending of the different notes that makes the music."

"You knew me. You knew that person, but you don't know the person that I'm trying to become."

"Emptiness is not tangible …I swear I could touch it."

Though our country is mostly Catholic, Filipinos' faith are diversified, and with all the religious fanaticism surrounding us, its hard to know what to believe in. But we always have freedom to believe whatever we want to believe, and we should always respect what others believe into. Simply because we don't know everything, nobody does.