{"id":2047,"date":"2016-06-05T22:08:05","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T22:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2016-05-30T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T22:14:09","slug":"applied-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/06\/applied-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Applied Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1842\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg\" alt=\"Second close-up of picture\" width=\"257\" height=\"300\" \/>Sometimes, faith and our spirituality can seem separated from the stark reality in our lives. We know we should (and do) pray, read Scripture, worship and seek fellowship, but then we go out into the &#8220;big, bad world,&#8221; and meet all manner of challenges (well, most of the challenges have no manners&#8230;but you understand what I mean!).<\/p>\n<p>I think it&#8217;s helpful if we try to look at our faith from a different perspective every so often &#8211; a perspective of &#8220;applied faith.&#8221; This concept \u00a0is one I focus on in almost all of my writing &#8211; it&#8217;s how we bring Jesus into our work, play, relationships, and even our long, boring commute. It&#8217;s how we look at our world through the eyes of a Child of God (the Creator) and how we look inwardly and listen for the call of the Holy Spirit. If we do this consistently throughout the day, we start to develop a kind of beneficial detachment. Like a \u00a0moat that can protect us from temptations and other vices in the world, and make us steelier to withstand the prejudices and persecutions that people of faith may overtly or subtly endure, applied faith is a tool we have at our disposal anytime, anywhere. It is with us if we suffer from illness or are at the peak of health. It is with us whenever we encounter a challenge &#8211; and it gets us through that challenge with grace.<\/p>\n<p>Think of\u00a0<em>applying<\/em> your faith, like a bandage and a balm, the next time you encounter overt problems in your day.<\/p>\n<p>It helps!<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes, faith and our spirituality can seem separated from the stark reality in our lives. We know we should (and do) pray, read Scripture, worship and seek fellowship, but then we go out into the &#8220;big, bad world,&#8221; and meet all manner of challenges (well, most of the challenges have no manners&#8230;but you understand what&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,360,43,1242,4,1047,578,1420,1245],"tags":[2138,45,2140,2139,2141],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-determination","category-encouragement-in-life","category-food-for-thought","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-good","category-goodness","category-pain-2","category-positive","tag-applying-faith","tag-faith","tag-god-is-with-us","tag-living-with-faith","tag-protection-against-challenges"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Applied Faith - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This brings greater protection against the ills in the world!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/06\/applied-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Applied Faith - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This brings greater protection against the ills in the world!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/06\/applied-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-05T22:08:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-30T22:14:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Applied Faith - 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain &amp; Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}