When our faith is tested
by Robert Meagher on 05/14/15“Acceptance, trust, and patience are symbiotically intertwined to create the condition I call faith.”
This year I will celebrate 6 years of sobriety from an addictive way of life that was killing my soul. I couldn’t help myself. I needed the substance to even get through my day. That addiction was to a deadly substance called ‘ego.’
Six years ago I made the conscious choice to leave behind a life and lifestyle that was not serving me well and to explore a new way of seeing and living in the world. I could not have imagined the amazing journey it has been.
The journey has not been without its challenges. But I would not change even a minute of the transformative process of divesting myself of early life conditioning that was fraught with dis-ease, judgement, anger, and guilt.
Along the way my faith has been tested. I would have to say that this transformative journey has even brought me to my knees, numerous times. No doubt, I will be brought there again, and again. Each time my faith is tested, I learn three valuable lessons about life—acceptance, trust, and patience.
Acceptance, trust, and patience are symbiotically intertwined to create the condition I call faith. For me, it begins with acceptance of life on its terms, not on the way I want it to be. It does not mean ‘giving up’ on life but ‘giving into’ life. This acceptance is an all-important surrender to the ego that wants to fight life and force its will on Creation.
The acceptance leads to trust. I trust that what life is offering me is for my own good. ‘Life is happening for me, not to me’ is a saying that comes to mind. This trust leads to a final step in the process of building faith; but it remains the most difficult for me to master.
Patience requires our acceptance and trust that all will work out, because all is as it should be—perfect just as it is. This patience requires me to fully let go of all vestiges of wanting life to be something other than it is.
When I am able to accept, trust, and show patience, I begin to realize that the world is the effect of my thoughts. Said another way, I am the cause and the world is the effect. My faith is strengthened by the knowledge that I can see the world however I want to, and that the way I live in the world is a direct result of how I see it.
My faith is not tested, really. My faith is a wonderful reminder to see the world anew; to release myself from a distorted vision of dis-ease, judgement, anger, and guilt, to a divine vision of peace, unity, and love.
In growing patience…
Shanti, Namaste, Agapé,
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