Posts
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.I saw this quote on a poster in a bus I was riding to a job interview yesterday. Very nice.
-- Martin Luther King
Faith was a difficult concept for me for a very long time. I was stuck with the concept I had been taught by the nuns in my grade school: faith meant believing what they told you no matter how silly it sounded. Adolescent rebellion took care of that one pretty fast and unfortunately left nothing in its place. Cynicism was a sign of intelligence. The smiling guy was probably pretty dumb. Reality was grim. And all this was before I read Sartre. I was stuck in a 'realism' that recognized only the worst aspects of reality.
It was only with sobriety that I came to a concept of Faith that is beautifully expressed in the above quote from Martin Luther King. It is an acceptance of reality coupled with an openness to the future, whatever it may bring. You act to affect future events, not control them. And with that attitude comes the realization that while individual things might really stink and bad things can and will happen, the world remains a beautiful place.
As I said in an earlier post, my job hunt has been a bit wild this week and here I was yesterday, sitting on a bus, preparing to get back onto that roller coaster when I saw that poster. Very nice.
That is a wonderful quote. I too had (and to some extent still do have) a problem with faith. So many people seemed to use it as an excuse and explanation for things when reality got a little slippery.
ReplyDelete"Of course everything is going to be OK Dave, you just have to have faith!"
"But what if it isn't?"
"Don't be so negative."
My growth in that area has been huge, but I try to avoid loosely using the word to much.
I was told early on that 'fear' and 'faith' can not exist together (there are many cute sayings for this idea). My experience has been just the opposite.
Faith and Fear walk hand in hand in my world. I rarely have to call on my faith unless I fear something. To me, faith is the ability to walk through situations where I have fear... even if I don't see the whole staircase.