Another look at Faith
Perhaps this would be a good place to talk about faith for just a moment. Most people think that faith is some far out thing. Others think it is just a concept. Still others think it is an emotional thing.
Faith is a relationship with someone and a trust in them. Can you see why putting your faith in anyone (no matter how knowledgeable, how seemingly nice, or how credentialed they might be) means not putting your faith in God?
The relationship with God, that I call faith, means looking to intuition first. It is an involvement with the inner Light. Like a little child who holds his daddy’s hand and who looks to daddy whenever he has a question or concern about anything, the soul looks inward with a silent plea or questioning.
This involvement is not an emotional one. It is mental and spiritual. It is an attitude of looking to God, of ever checking the rightness of things, and ever wanting to be guided to do the right thing.
Perhaps the best ways to describe faith is by pointing out what it is not. What most people think of as faith is an emotional involvement with words, objects or people. It is the involvement of the ego with whatever or whoever gives it faith in itself and makes it feel good about itself.
This involvement is emotional, physical and imaginal. For example, we get involved with some person (lover or leader) who appeals to our ego. We have an emotional attachment to them, they make us feel, and we toy with them in our imagination.
We become sensitive to their physical presence, which stirs us to feelings. Of course, the feelings associated with being in love come to mind. It is obvious how the lover appeals to something we want for our ego.
We are also stirred by the excitement that a speeding car represents, a soft luxurious coat, or a fancy piece of jewelry. They stand for something—power, party time, excitement, self righteousness, luxury, and so on. A person can also get excited over words or over knowledge.
Just about anything that holds out a promise of glory, greatness, worship, or even the hope of a cure can make us excited and emotional. People who look to medicine to save them can become excited over the latest operation or a new experimental medicine that holds out the possibility of a cure. People get excited over knowledge and education when they promise greatness to the ego.
A leader or lover appeals to our ego, offering it something, and we will begin to get involved with them, and soon we even have a fantasy relationship with them.
It’s only a small stretch to see how someone we hate also involves us with emotions and fantasy. The one we hate gives us feelings of judgment and powerful anger feelings. We judge them, and the feelings of anger or unhappiness, support our ego in its role as judge.
Here’s a cute story that illustrates the relationship aspect of faith. A little boy was standing by the curb. A business man came along and asked: “Why are you standing here?” I’m waiting for the bus, said the boy. The business man chuckled and said, I hate to tell you, but this is not a bus stop. After going back and forth a couple of times, the boy said I have faith that this is a bus stop. The business man shook his head and began to walk away.
As he was walking he heard the sound of bus brakes behind him. He turned and saw a big bus stopping for the boy.
As the boy was getting on the bus, he turned to the businessman and said: You see, Mister, the bus driver is my dad.”
Faith is a relationship for better or worse. When we put our faith in what we know we know deep down, we are permitting the Light of Truth from God to enter, and we are involving ourselves with the Spirit of Truth. We yearn for it and we welcome God’s involvement in our life. In exchange for our yearning and trust, He helps us to change for the better and wordlessly guides us.
It’s not an emotional thing, it’s a deep soul yearning and turning to God. It’s an inclination of the soul. It’s obedience and a willingness to follow through with what we realize is right.
It leads to realizations and private revelations that give us more and more good reason for the way we are going. The good that we see happening all around us is the evidence of the faith we had the substance of things not seen and not yet made.
Indeed, the quiet faith does lead to a change in our physical being, evidenced by the happy sad emotion of repentance that purges us of error. We also have a quiet excitement over our discoveries, a joy, and a peace of mind that we cannot give ourselves. More often than not, real faith is trusting in a silent knowing, what we know deep down in our hearts.
One mother will coldly and ambitiously send her child off to godless preschool or school where the child is taught and bullied by strangers and conformed to peers.
Another mother will hear the cries of her child the first day she is about to send the child off to spend the day with strangers. But she will doubt her heart ache, ignore her intuition and believe and have faith in strangers and experts. Hardening her heart, she pushes the child onto the school bus anyway.
Another mom will heed her wordless intuition and clasp her child close to her bosom. She will find a way to home school her child. This woman has faith. The still small voice, the quiet intuition is from God. This faithful mother may not know this, but what she does have is love for her child and a willingness to do what is right. And when there is a will, there is a way (as my mother used to say). She heeds the silent warning, and her daughter is safe and the mother will be blessed.
It is said that the mind of man plans and schemes, but the Lord directs his feet.
But this only for the soul that stands back from thinking, and listens to the heart. Despite the doubts, and though the whole world be arrayed against her, the faithful mom does what she knows deep down in her heart is right. Click here to read the rest of the article
Go to Commsensecounseling.org to listen to Roland's Radio Program that airs in the San Francisco Bay Area
