Leap of Faith

Faith and Trust

“For the sailor who does not know where to set his course, there are no favorable winds.”
Seneca
“Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”
St. Augustine

I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, faith turned into trust for me. The definition of faith is belief in something you cannot see, right? Almost every time I start a new project, I have no idea where it will take me, or what shape it will have when I get there. When I talk with other writers and artists, they tell me that they begin with an outline, or a rough draft of a story, or they draw the image on paper first. In other words, they know ‘where to set their course’. Not I. I just take a leap of faith and jump right into nothingness. My latest art project, for instance, is a layered, multi-colored something-or-other. I have been working on it in the depths of unknowing for three days. As I was waking this morning, the thought came to me from out of the blue, ‘it’s a comet’. So now, I know where I’m going. I trust that I’m on the right path.

Faith and trust are inextricably connected. Over the course of a lifetime, if one lives a life of faith, and sees that faith pan out time after time, one develops an abiding trust. The prayer goes something like this:

“I don’t know where I’m going, God, but I know you’ll take me safely there. Give me your hand. Amen”

That opening to God’s guidance is the very essence of faith. Truth be told, we don’t know where this life is taking us. We have no idea what may be around the next corner. All we can do is put our hand in The Hand, and jump. God provides the parachute.

In the spirit,
Jane