The Sine of Faith

The sine wave is such a beautiful thing. It has so many applications and properties that have taught us so much about the crazy world around us. From simple math to quantum physics, from economics to biology, the sine wave has so much to offer. Unsurprisingly, there is another meaningful aspect, a less scientific one in particular, an aspect that one can argue also takes on the property of the sine.

Faith is like a sine wave.

It really is.

In all its mathematical beauty, the sine can teach us much more than merely numbers and angles. Let me explain...

A sine wave looks simple yet is so complex. The wave first starts off at zero and slowly climbs its way to the top. Once it has reached its peak it decides to change directions and swoop back down to a minimum, a trough you may call it. Once it hits this trough it decides to restart its cycle and shoot for the stars once more, and then again after reaching its peak, it shyly changes directions and recedes. This cycle goes on and on, remaining forever in a dynamic state of motion, once climbing to the top and once dipping back down.

Faith is like a sin wave. At times we feel so connected, so spiritual, so full of optimism and belief, and therefore we enter a time of spiritual growth, a time where day by day we drive closer to God. There’s truly nothing greater than this feeling. It is a feeling of optimism, of love, of connection, of true warm and genuine peace of mind and heart. The more you develop the better you get at it, and in parallel to the sine function, the faster you begin to grow. Life is great.

But suddenly things begin to slow down. In mathematical terms, your faith’s rate of change is decreasing. It seems as though no matter how hard you're pushing you can't grow any more. You compare your current situation to how you used to be; its a heartbreaking moment. And suddenly you've hit your peak. Suddenly the first derivative of your faith is equal to zero. There’s no longer any growth. Life seems bland. There’s no more development in your faith, you feel as if your connection with God has no where else to go. Soon enough, you tip over and enter a time of recession. Life hits, school hits, relationships hit, and now each day you float further and further away from Him. Life has gotten in the way and you have become so preoccupied by your responsibilities and duties that you no longer make time to connect with Him. You've entered a downwards spiral and you know it. You understand what’s happening and know that it’s not what you want for yourself. But for some reason, something in you prevents you from changing your trajectory. You sincerely want to go back to a season of growth and strengthening of faith, a season of better connection with God, yet it seems the signal has become too weak to even look back on.

As unfaithful as these times may seem to be, they're normal. As humans we will always go through this sine pattern of faith. It is hard for even the most faithful of us to remain in a constant season of growth and strong connection. We hit these times and start to lose motivation. We start to lose hope that we will ever return to the state we were once in. In times like these we need to remember that the sine function does not recede eternally. The sine function has a specific range that it does not dip lower than. We need to remember that after a time of recession, a trough is waiting for us, waiting to reverse our trajectory. No matter how long the recessional season may last, the sine function ALWAYS turns back around and soars high in the skies, shooting for the stars.

It is so crucial that we remember this property of the sine in order to not give up. We may become so overwhelmed by the recession period that we cancel this whole journey of faith. Without persistence, we set a defined domain for the function, preventing it from continuing any longer. We now take this eternal gift of faith and restrict it from growing once more. We decide to define our faith such that

[time of birth, time of pain]

is the only domain under which faith exists. And who knows, maybe the second we decide to give up was at that trough point. How sad would it be to end a sine function just as it was about to turn around and grow once more. Riding out the tough times is not an easy thing to do. However, if only we had more patience, if only we understood the repeating pattern of the sine, if only we kept hope and stayed rooted, then maybe we could write a different ending to the story. Maybe the fate of our faith can be unending and eternal, extending all the way to infinity just like the beautiful sine function. Maybe the story of our faith can continue to prosper during loving times of growth and happiness, and not end during hurting times of pain.

If only...

-Danny Al-Sammak