Title: Where Can I Find
Faith?
“Believe and you shall receive,” is the backbone of manifesting whatever
you need in life. Faith is a step up beyond belief. Faith may be somewhat
tainted as a bit old fashioned, but I think it is a great word and still
in style. It can move mountains, we are told. Maybe so, but I have no
mountains that I feel need to be moved, so we are going to look at faith
in everyday life. From my way of looking at spiritual evolution, its
associated practices and principles need to be applicable to day-to-day
life if they are to benefit my journey.
Faith is not for the weak hearted or weak kneed. Having faith requires a
solid grounding in whatever it is that I am investing my energy. Faith
contains an element of assuredness that may not be present in belief. For
example, I can believe that waging war is not in the highest and best
interest of our world. I can have that belief and go about my daily life
without another thought about it. If I have faith that war is not in the
highest and best interest of our world, I raise the ante. How is this so?
To believe is to having a knowing about something. If I don’t have a
clock, and someone asks me what time it is, I can say, “I believe it is
two PM.” That is, based on whatever means I have for telling time, I think
it is two PM. To have faith is to go beyond knowing to understanding, to
certainty, whether I have a timepiece or not. If I answer the “what time
is it” question form a position of faith, I might say, “It is two PM,”
without condition or equivocation. What enables me to go from belief to
faith?” In this example, you might be tempted to say, “Get a watch, duh?”
That is an answer for this example that works; however, lots of times,
there is no answer that is that tangible. Do I believe in God, or do I
have faith that there is God? Do I believe that when I die my essence is
immortal and simply shifts energy states, or do I have faith that this
will happen? These and many other “belief or faith” questions taunted me
for decades, after I started believing in God, and dangled metaphysical
carrots in front of my empty, air grasping hands. Belief is a comfortable
resting place on my spiritual journey. It is tempting to hang out there
and go no further.
Consequently, I (and many, many others) have lots of comfortable beliefs
that I use to shape my view of the physical and metaphysical worlds. What
is lacking is commitment. When I commit to a belief, I enter the realm of
faith. Because of some of the work that I do now, I read a lot of
metaphysical-oriented work. Some of it is presented in such a definite and
forceful style, that I begin to think that the article is written from
faith. But, then I wonder, is the author writing from faith or a belief
that is rooted in fear? Herein lurks the “belief booby trap.”
The “belief booby trap” is one that you set for yourself when you need
others to buy into your belief. Sometimes we want others to buy into our
beliefs so that we will be held in high esteem, and thus apply a little
topical anesthesia to the pain of feeling that we are not worthy.
Sometimes, it is difficult for me to assess a writer or speaker’s faith in
what they present. As always, my old standby, discernment, is needed to
make the call. If I really listen to my discernment, my inner
understanding divorced from ego, then the answer I receive is valid.
Now and then, a reader not only takes issue with what I write, but
questions my IQ and parentage. I must admit that sometimes I feel as if I
have been punched in the stomach. Even though, I know enough to realize
that it is my ego that received the blow, there is that precious moment
when I know that the reader has seen through the wall protecting myself,
and knows me for who I perceive I am.
Although I have healed my major emotional wounds, the reflexes they left
behind continue to be triggered by karmic moments that I need to process.
They are now easier and faster to resolve with loving acceptance.
When did my faith grow wings and take off? Answer: in that case, faith was
never there; if it was present when I opened the fateful email, I would
have simply and lovingly accepted the reader’s comment and gone on my way.
I experienced yet another “karmic moment” when I am on the cusp of how
will I process the seeming attack on my worthiness?
Will, I find my faith in what I wrote and lovingly accept the reader’s
insults, or will I begin crafting a biting reply to the jerk who dared
assault my words? It is an interesting moment to experience as are all
karmic moments, big or small, when I have awareness of them. There is that
boogey-principal again, awareness. My, but awareness does haunt me, and
that is good. I need reminders. I chose not to write the reader back and
lovingly accept the insults.
Let’s bend around in a full circle in this belief - faith model. To
believe is to accept something. To have faith is to understand that
something is. The difference between the two is commitment. When I have
faith, I am committed to the existence of that in which I have faith.
More simply, belief = probably; faith = certainty.
Belief makes me seem knowledgeable. Faith makes me unimpeachable. Belief
is a rest area on my spiritual journey; faith is the fuel that takes me
forward.
Belief is not wrong, bad, or evil. Beliefs are important to us for they
are the foundation for faith. First comes belief, then faith. The essence
of using belief in spiritual evolution is to realize what it is present in
a belief in contrast to faith. Having faith raises the ante, but not every
belief needs to be fired in faith and shaped on the anvil of experience –
just the ones that are the foundation of who we define ourselves to be.
So, Lilly, is anything that you write, written in faith, or is it all
belief? I admit that a fraction of what I write does come from belief. 99%
comes from faith - I am committed to every word I write. What is important
for you, is that you understand what you are faithful to. When you do
that, life becomes a lot simpler and easier.
TRUST in yourself, goes hand in hand with belief & faith.
TRUST...expecting the best to happen, believing in YOUR ability to create
what you want, and knowing you deserve to have it...it is demonstrated by
believing in something or someone even when the outer world seems to
reflect something else. It is demonstrated by talking of your having it
(or him or her) even if you do not yet see it or him or her around you. It
is not enough to sit around and believe. Demonstrate trust by listening to
your inner guidance and taking action on it. Since you live in a world of
form and substance, action is the physical link to having what you want.
Every time you are willing to take a risk, you increase your ability to
trust and to believe in yourself. There is a difference between trust and
hope. Trusting is believing and knowing that what you want will come (or
come back); hoping is wanting something but not really believing that it
will.
Ron McCray
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