Have you ever wondered… about blind faith vs. built faith? I have. I was raised in a very religious household. I spent summers at church camps that figuratively waterboarded me with Christian Kool-Aid. I was told to believe and accept things as truth without proof. I can easily recall staying up late at night sobbing uncontrollably because I could not wrap my head around this concept of blind faith. How could these people possibly know these things? Those poor camp counselors must have had their hands full with me back then.
Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.
-D. Elton Trueblood
As I discovered and explored the Bahá’í Faith in my more recent years, I encountered the idea of built faith instead of blind faith. This concept resonates so strongly within me. Do not take or accept someone else’s faith as your own. Find and make your own faith. It is the recommended path even within Bahá’í households. How else can it be strong, trustworthy, and independent? In moments of weakness or doubt, you will not feel compelled to blame someone else’s faith. Instead, you can fortify and build yours more.
If you lose money you lose much, if you lose friends you lose more, if you lose faith you lose all.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
I really relish this concept and idea of feeling faith. As a self-identifying intellectual, feelings are rarely my strong suit. They often give me the most trouble. However, exploring somatics and tuning into my body has also indirectly benefited my ability to believe. As I feel more on a physical level, I also begin to feel more on other levels. I am tapping into my heart in ways I only heard about from others with pangs of jealousy previously. Finding this oasis within has been refreshing, relieving, and rejuvenating.
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
-Khalil Gibran
Your faith does not need to look like your parents’ or anyone else’s faith. Mine certainly feels rather unique. I provide my personal example as a simple statement in the hope of encouraging you to found your faith in whatever way resonates clearly within your core. Maybe it will change over time. Frankly, I think it probably should. I know I have learned more gradually and incrementally to tweak, adjust, and augment my feelings about it all. For example, I used to be way too rigid with faith. Now, I am embracing a freer flexibility. I still have some nonnegotiables that have not shifted since the start, but the evolution and expansion of my spiritual education has been emphatically and enjoyably elucidating.
What after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them.
-Jane Addams
I wonder if you will explore more. Can you be more curious? As our island of the known grows, so too does our shore of the unknown. There will always be more. Do not get caught up in a constant chase; do focus on founding and fortifying your free-flowing faith.
Maybe it is wise. Maybe it is dumb. Time will tell. Stay wondrous, y’all :)