Roger Housden, author of “Keeping the Faith without a Religion,” spoke about faith in the most wonderful, sensible and pragmatic terms. He spoke of faith as being “prior to religion…part of who we are as human beings…non-rational intuition of both life itself and the way it’s going.” What I especially liked was when Housden said that faith belongs to the clearly put idea that it may be but is not necessarily attached to a religious system. It makes perfect sense to realize that faith is an entirely natural response of our humanity as we make our way through the world of our affairs, so natural that it is not just on hand when things are going well but when hard times show up also.
Faith is not a monolith...
Faith is not a monolith; it comes and it goes and is entirely buildable, which makes it fully a living thing. Perhaps we should not worry so much, then, when we feel our faith is small. Perhaps these dark times are just more reasons to seek greater light through our mental/spiritual practices.
We exercise faith every day...
I think Housden is right. I think the“organic, natural truth and beauty of life holds alongside all the darkness and difficulty.” The essence of faith comes into life with us and simply enhances itself as we stay out of its way. We are, by nature, beings of faith. Wisdom comes when we realize this and work to establish bonds that connect our faith to the Divine Good, however we may view this. Whether we think about this or not, we exercise faith every day. When we go to sleep at night, we have faith that we’ll wake up in the morning. When we leave our homes, we have faith that we will return. If we really want a strong, working faith it will belong to us to establish a foundation within ourselves that holds vital meaning on which to stand, something that, through sun and storms, we can count on…a place where faith dwells.
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Essays About Everything is now available on Amazon
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