Let’s talk about faith. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Texas and all those affected by Harvey. It’s so sad to see people lose everything. And it also warms my heart to see people coming together to help. Something out a huge crisis like this brings out the best in us. I wonder sometimes if that is why we have them.
The whole thing has made me think about FAITH and what it means. It’s a tricky word, one that has a lot of charge to it, a lot of baggage. For some faith is a concept that rationalizes their horrible behavior. Many wars have been started over the concept of faith and who is wrong and who is right. It becomes another word that divides and destroys rather than unifying.
For me faith is something I fall back on everyday, and even more so in these troubling times. I have never gone a day in my life without feeling faith, like a warm pulsing and an opening in my heart.
I don’t have that fire and brimstone version of faith that divides US against THEM.
I also don’t have a Pollyanna version of faith that sees through rose-colored glasses, in that fluffy bunny way -“everything is going to be ok in the end, you’ll see!”
My faith is a little more gritty. It’s a determination to stay fully present with whatever is going on, no matter what. In this case the horror of a hurricane that will change the landscape and the people of a city of 6 million souls. Forever. And in the general observation that our country is sliding into a dark and troubling time that has no easy and quick fix. We are in deep trouble as a country and as a people divided by hate, fear and ignorance. And we are probably going deeper down that rabbit hole before things turn around.
Faith helps me keep my heart open in compassion for the suffering of others, without turning away. It keeps my eyes open to what is playing out, as a sacred witness to some powerful crossroads of human evolution. My faith assures me that rising consciousness will win in the end, eventually.
My faith in humanity is confirmed by watching the news and seeing everyday acts of heroism by “ordinary” people in extraordinary circumstances. I truly believe in the basic goodness of people and that it is only the wayward fringes that really out to cause trouble.
This compassion and presence that I call faith assures me that over time, when the chaos levels out, the light in us is still stronger than the dark and that a tiny bit of light can overcome a vast amount of the shadow. I don’t KNOW that to be true, but I BELIEVE. And that is faith.
Faith feels an awful lot like love to me these days. And while I haven’t talked about the Divine yet, I also have faith that somewhere there is a Divine consciousness that is made up of love and is moving us towards being more loving of others and ourselves.
Pain, fear and despair come when we have forgotten how to love. And who to love.
That one is easy. Ourselves first, of course. When we are completely loving ourselves, it’s almost impossible not to love others. And then it is but a breath away to love the Divine.
We will remember in time. I have faith that we will.
