Leaping to Faith

Lily Pads of Faith

“My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another.  Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew.  Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across a swamp of doubt and fear.”

                                  Anne Lamott

                                  Traveling Mercies

         Most people are born into a particular religious tradition.  In my case it was protestant Christianity.  For a while, sometimes for our whole lives, that tradition speaks most clearly to us.  But, religion is not synonymous with faith.  Faith is something engrained very early in life, in the first two years, and based not on religious teachings, but on the security of a baby’s environment.  When a baby learns that he is safe and that his needs will reliably be answered, a feeling of trust develops; trust in early life and faith in later life go hand in hand.  One’s ability to have faith in the universe, in God, is directly related to one’s level of trust in the innate goodness of existence. 

         For most of us, faith changes over the lifetime from a concrete belief in the stories and deities of our birth tradition, to an individualized interpretation of that tradition, to a universal belief in the validity of all traditions.  There are permutations along the way, and some people don’t make the journey at all.  Some of us start out with a faith tradition, abandon it in young adulthood, and return to it in later life.  Many people today are opting for a belief system that is not couched in religious terms at all, that does not fit neatly into any particular tradition, or may be a combination of many.

         The basic questions-regardless of tradition or lack thereof-are these: Do I believe in something greater than myself?  Do I trust that my life is unfolding as it should, and that I will be shown the next step in my own evolution?  Do I trust?  When one can answer ‘yes’ to these questions, one can move ‘across a swamp of doubt and fear,’ knowing that the next ‘lily pad’ will be there to hold you up.  God will be there to hold you up.

                                  In all things give thanks,

                                  Jane