5/23/13

Faith and Trust When Tragedy Strikes Home

Putting faith in someone can be a dangerous thing.  Sometimes when we think we are putting faith in someone we internally believe that they will do what we want them to do, not what we should be trusting them to do.  When someone says "I trust you" what does that actually mean?  I trust you to make the right decision for you or trust you to make the right decision for me?

Most often it is the latter and when the "trust" is broken we feel betrayed when all along we set ourselves up by not allowing ourselves to see the person as they are instead of who we want them to be.

When it comes to faith, we often do the same.  We say "I have faith in him or her" or even more often "I trust in my faith" as our guidance, God or Higher power to take care of me.  We long to have that comforting feeling of love and protection.  Someone higher than, stronger than, wiser than and more caring than us to protect and nurture us.  But when tragedies and upsets happen in our lives, like the twisters hitting homes and killing children our faith is often jarred.  We are brought back from our dream like sleep to a reality that leaves us questioning why the children weren't protected, why our daughters had to die and why God would allow such tragedies into our lives.

There is a balance of things in the universe.  For every yin there is a yang, every dark idea one is made in the light.  In nature this balance is kept with animals choosing the weak or sick to prey upon for their survival, in our natural weather patterns our surroundings constantly try to keep the weather in balance and the winds and storms are evidence of this.  Turbulent weather is natures way of trying to bring peace back to the atmosphere.

Having faith that God or a higher power will protect you in these situations can leave you with a nice comforting feeling.  It would be nice to think that God would swoop down and scoop us up in his hands in our hour of need, however, is that the way your or my God actually operates? Is this something WE think he is or should do or is this the way he actually is?

Sometimes our faith can be put in a higher power by knowing that if we listen to that higher power perhaps he or she can bring us to safety.  But faith alone can not be also the bidding.  Our requests must be made and our needs asked for.  It sounds so simple, yet how can these things we need present in our life come to us if we don't even communicate that they are needed?  Simple prayer, a simple heartfelt asking sometimes is all that is needed to have our faith restored.  God helps those who help themselves is an old saying, but sometimes a wise one.  For when we put our faith in him we are also trusting ourselves to listen to what he has to say, whether we like it or not, and live our lives listening for his guidance.  This is true faith and trust in action.  Knowing the difference of where we place it and how we need to respond to it.

1 comment:

Reni Sentana-Ries said...

Deborah, few people have tolerance for my personal views on religion. I don't know what "faith in God" is, and therefore "prayer" is to me an exercise of futility. The idea of a singular "God" I cannot comprehend, and so I have come to believe that the "God" people pray to does not exist.

But what I can understand is that there are many gods, many goddesses, and that the godhood we are seeking lies already deeply concealed within us all as we strive to peel off the layers of our beings from the density of our physical bodies, connect with our Higher Selves, and from thereon progress forward in character nobility and insight to join with the ultimate godhood within ourselves as the portion of our soul make-up in absolute brilliance.

With that in mind I have concluded that the gods and goddesses are ourselves. Therefore it would not be unreasonable to say that planet earth contains over 7 billion gods and goddesses, of whom only very few understand that their godhood is no further away than their own noses.

Therefore, when people speak of "trust in God," they'd better begin to find the trust in themselves, for only there can the "god" (or goddess) be found as the godhood manifests in the physical.

(Debbie, if this comment of mine is too controversial, then please don't publish it. I promise not to hold it against you).