Reflection:
Faith and Doubt
In this reflection we look at the questions: What is faith? Where does doubt fit in? And what does authenticity mean in the context of faith?
Opening music:
Listen to the following as an opening prayer.
Lyrics:
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything changes, I alone remain.
Hold patience, for nothing is wasted,
Presence in all things, I'm with you in all things.
Quiet Prayer:
Ultimately the invitation of faith is to "be still and know", to rest in trust in the place beyond certainty or doubt, like a child at rest in its parent's arms. Spend some time in quiet prayer, gently surrendering yourself to the quiet holding of the everlasting arms.
End the time of quiet prayer by listening to the following song:
Lyrics:
Come now child, lay it down,
Just breathe, just be
Come be cradled in the arms of love,
Just breathe, just be
Sacred Reading:
Read the following readings through twice or three times, with an attitude of open receptivity. Allow a few minutes of silence between the readings. Listen for any words that call out to you, or that draw you into a listening that is deeper than your usual knowing:
Reading 1: Romans 11:33-36 paraphrase
Oh, the depth of the riches of Your wisdom and knowledge, O God!
How unsearchable Your judgments, and Your paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known Your mind? Or who has been Your counsellor?
Who has ever given to You, that You should repay them?
For from You and through You and for You are all things.
To You be glory for ever and ever, Amen.
Reading 2: Extract fom Mysteries, Yes by Mary Oliver
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
Unknowing walking meditation (10 minutes)
Take a slow walk in nature, if possible, and as you go, pay attention to whatever you are perceiving. Taste your experiences, and try to let go of any ideas you have about what you experience.
As soon as you find your mind labelling something, or trying to understand or solve some problem, respond with "I don't know", and return to the simplicity of paying attention.
For Further Reflection:
Below are quotes from the talk for you to take this theme further.
Kavi Hockaday: “Doubt is not merely the absence of faith. Doubt is the collapse of false certainty.”
Constance FitzGerald describes that creative growth and transformation are possible "if the path into the unknown, into the uncontrolled and unpredictable margins of life, is freely taken when the path of deadly clarity fades."
From a Mary Oliver poem called “The Journey”:
One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice –
though the whole house began to tremble
and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
Kavi Hockaday: “If our “trust” is built on inherited ideas, cultural conditioning, or surface optimism, then it is fragile. Doubt comes like a storm to sweep away the scaffolding. What remains is raw, unguarded, unadorned. … Doubt strips us of control, of the comfort of ready-made answers. But paradoxically, this very emptiness is what allows true trust to be born. Not trust in an idea about God, not trust in a doctrine or tradition, but trust in Life itself. Trust in the Living Presence. Trust in the unseen Mystery that carries us when all else fails.” …
“Out of it (the fertile ground of not-knowing) grows a trust that is not based on answers, but on presence. A trust that says: Even here, even now, even in the dark, I am willing to be carried.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, from her book “Eat pray love: “There is a reason we refer to ‘leaps of faith’ – because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable … Faith is walking face first and full speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God, and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith, and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be… a prudent insurance policy.
I’m not interested in the insurance industry. I’m tired of being a sceptic, I’m irritated by spiritual prudence, and I feel bored and parched by empirical debate. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I couldn’t care less about evidence and proof and assurances. I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water.”
Ending Prayer: BLESSING THAT UNDOES US, by Jan Richardson
On the day when you are wearing your certainty like a cloak
and your sureness goes before you like a shield or like a sword,
may the sound of God’s name spill from your lips as you have never heard it before.
May your knowing be undone.
May mystery confound your understanding.
May the Divine rain down in strange syllables
yet with an ancient familiarity,
a knowing borne in the blood, the ear, the tongue,
bringing the clarity that comes not in stone or in steel
but in fire, in flame.
May there come one searing word:
enough to bare you to the bone,
enough to set your heart ablaze,
enough to make you whole again.
Amen
Ending music:
Lyrics:
How much room is there inside of us for what we don’t already know,
Do we have the courage to venture beyond the safety of the known,
Into the wisdom of uncertainty where insight is born,
Into the wisdom of uncertainty humility is born.
How much room is there inside of us for what we don’t already know,
Do we have the courage to venture beyond the safety of the known,
Into the wisdom of uncertainty where insight is born,
Into the wisdom of uncertainty creation takes form.
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Sharon's book that was previously called "Contemplative Living" has been republished by AnamChara Books under the title "Deeper: Finding the Depth Dimension Beneath the Surface of Life". The Kindle version is available from Amazon, and the hard copy version can be ordered from loot.co.za or Takealot, or from your local bookshop through Ingram Distribution.