Faith
Today
“Faith
is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”
Rabindranath
Tagor
This
morning, I looked back to February, 2011, to see what the topic of my
first blog post was. It was faith. What does it mean? Most of the
time, when I ask other people this question, their sentences begin
with “I believe in...” and then they cite the tenets of whatever
religion they subscribe to. But for me, that isn't faith exactly.
Faith
is more visceral. It is an abiding optimism deep in the gut and the
soul, that all things happen for a reason, even if we can't see what
that reason is. Faith is a strong foundation, not in a specific set
of religious requisites, but in the inherent goodness of creation. In
the unfolding of the universe in the direction of wholeness. Humanity
takes steps forward, and steps backward, but there is ever progress,
slight but steady. Sometimes we fall into chaos. Chaos teaches us
lessons we need to learn. Empires rise and fall, but none remains on
top forever. We often see this as tragedy, but is it? Or is it the
natural ebb and flow of life. We exist for a brief moment at a
particular point in the ongoing saga of life on planet earth. We are
so immersed in our time and our circumstances, that we don't take a
long view. The movement of humanity is steadily forward.
Today,
I give thanks for those who are willing to travel into war zones to
provide food for starving people. I am grateful for organizations
like Doctors Without Boarders, who give their all for people hanging on to dear life in untenable circumstances. I am in awe of Greek Islanders who go out in the dark of night to pull drowning strangers from the sea, even though they have no idea how they will manage them. I am thankful that in America we have a President who values negotiation and shared power over carpet bombing
and strong-arming. I have faith in the principles of decency and respect toward
all beings, and I am not ashamed of that. I hope I never will be.
I wonder about you. What does faith look like to you today?
In the Spirit,
Jane
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