🙏Blind Faith and Stale Crackers. Sex'n'fries Podcast Episode 24

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Belief, Faith, and the Messy Middle

This episode — and this post — is a reflection on believing in something.

Not necessarily God, not necessarily religion, but something bigger than us. The kind of belief that anchors you when life feels uncertain — or when you’re sitting in your car trying to remember why you walked into Target in the first place.

I didn’t grow up with a consistent religion. There wasn’t one faith that shaped our home or dictated how we prayed, loved, or celebrated. Religion was more of a community thing — around me, not inside my daily life.

And that’s confusing when you grow up surrounded by people who seem so sure about what they believe.

So what happens when you don’t grow up with a ready-made faith? How do you choose what to believe in — or whether to believe at all?

The Search for “Something”

For a long time, I thought belief had to come in a box — a church, a label, a set of rules.

But over time, I’ve realized that belief is more like energy — it shifts, expands, and finds its own shape. Maybe it’s faith in God, or in love, or in the way the universe somehow connects the dots.

Believing in something gives life texture. It makes us pause. It keeps us humble.

Because even if I can’t define it neatly, I know what it feels like — that quiet sense of connection that shows up in nature, in music, in laughter, or in those moments when you just know you’re not alone.

Faith, Without the Manual

When you don’t inherit religion, you get to build your own belief system from scratch — which is freeing and terrifying all at once.

You learn through curiosity. Through mistakes. Through asking big questions that don’t always have neat answers.

Maybe your belief is that kindness matters more than doctrine. Maybe it’s that everything happens for a reason — or maybe it’s that we create our own meaning.

Faith doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be yours.

How Belief Shapes Who We Are

Whatever we choose to believe — or not believe — influences our choices in ways we don’t always see. It shows up in how we parent, how we love, how we forgive.

Faith gives us something to lean on when life doesn’t make sense. And in midlife — when everything feels like a mix of chaos, clarity, and caffeine — it’s comforting to have something that grounds you.

Even if that “something” changes over time.

Final Fry Thought 🍟

Faith isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about having something to hold on to when the questions get loud.

So believe in something — anything — that brings you back to yourself. Maybe it’s prayer. Maybe it’s nature. Maybe it’s good people, good food, and a little hope.

Because the truth is, belief doesn’t need a label. It just needs a heartbeat.