FAITH
As I think about Faith, one of my three “pillars” of conversation, I am aware it can take as many forms as there are people. I am also aware that for many it seems elusive at best and, at worst, something we’ve been convinced we must work to achieve, demonstrate, and sustain.
I’ve known those places all-too-well: torn between something I deeply desire and (at least in traditional religious realms) am told I must display. Without such I’m told (and begin to believe) there’s something wrong with my lived beliefs, my behaviors, my spiritual depth. Maybe I knew it at one time: a faith that was rich, experienced, and meaningful. But now, it and sometimes I, feel lost. Can faith be found?
What if? (Probably my favorite question of all time…)
What if we’ve made a few mistakes along the way in our dogma, our theology, our demanded praxis? What if faith is not something we must aspire to, work toward, and maintain.? What if we do not need to become faithful? What if we do not need to work at being faithful? What if we do not need to stay faithful? In each of these the action of the verb falls to us as subject. I think that’s a problem. What if faith is not lost at all.
What if faith is a gift? What if faith is something we all inherently have? What if faith is a presence, a grace, a touch of the Divine in our lives?
This idea becomes even more significant for me when I combine it with the concept of the Sacred Feminine explored in yesterday’s post—this gathering energy, passion, and power. When I imagine the two – the Sacred Feminine and Faith – dancing, entwined, complimentary then faith feels rhythmic, effortless and un-lost. What if our finding of faith is directly linked to our embracing of the Sacred Feminine?
Indeed, what if?
What if the Sacred Feminine is a gift? What if the Sacred Feminine is something we all inherently have? What if the Sacred Feminine is a presence, a grace, a touch of the Divine in our lives?
What if, in finding (or being found by) the Sacred Feminine, our faith finds us?
Indeed, what if?
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Coming up Thursday: A “Feminism” based post on Sophia – Wisdom in Feminine Form (and yes, as you might imagine, even more about the Sacred Feminine).
Link to the artist featured above.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes….to all of the above. They are a gift. Not something I work for or earn. They are inherently a part of me. They can’t not be. I come from Divine Spirit, a part of Divine Spirit, forever united with Divine Spirit. I spent 37 years attempting to earn, deserve, pray for, push for, “…study to show my self approved unto…”, and follow rules precisely only to discover that it was in me all along, woven into my deepest being, waiting for the right time and the right circumstances to be fully revealed to me by the Divine. Within the revelation of what is and always has been lies the gift–the gentle (and sometimes sudden) growing awareness that swept over me beginning with a particular attention-grabbing starting place and continuing today. It is most definitely a gift to become aware of the power of what is. So many never fully grasp the potential. To be chosen, to have the sacred feminine moxy thrust into high gear, to be so certain of who is leading, guiding, and directing such radical change in my life…..yes, it’s a gift, and yet it’s been there all along.
‘Love that you write these words with such conviction, Angie. I know they have been formed through fire. Thank you. Beautiful.
In the past few weeks, I’ve been magically nudged to read books, listen to recordings and find blogs (this one, for example) about the search for the sacred and Divine. I have been a silent seeker for a very long time. For as long as I remember, I’ve been longing to understand and have a relationship with the Divine all my life. My problem was that I never knew how to find her. The traditional doorways of church and religion have always left me hollow. And I ultimatly feel as if something is wrong with me.
I’m currently reading “The Dance of the Dissident Daughter”, and it’s bringing my yearning for connection up to the surface.
I am only beginning to understand my longing for the sacred in my life. I’m so happy I found this blog. Keep asking the right questions.
Thank you for being here, for finding this conversation, and for choosing to step into it! Would love to hear your ongoing thoughts on Sue Monk Kidd’s book. As you journey, know that you’re not alone in the “doorways of church and religion leaving you hollow.” The yearnings and longings are real and, in my opinion, perhaps the strongest manifestation that the Divine is calling, present, within.
Everything we need is within us. Listen. Allow it to flow. Faith is there too.
Hugs and butterflies,
~T~
.-= PicsieChick´s last blog ..Is there room for doubt in gratitude? =-.
Love this. And…needed the words just now – this morning. Thank you!
And as I tentatively explore this new road, I can’t shake this deep anxiety based on this belief, “Evangelicals are the guarders of truth.” I know it sounds arrogant, narrow, and exclusive. And yet, because of the STRONG emphasis on our sacred scriptures, and so many words pounded into us that immediately mean many are lost, “narrow is the way and few will find it. no one comes to the Father except by me”, etc., I am finding myself deeply afraid to let go. It’s as if I’ll fall off some spiritual truth cliff, never recover, be turned away while all my evangelical “friends” shake their heads and say, “I told you so”. Faith based on truth HAS to be guarded from impurities, no? And that equals striving. If I stop striving…what protects me? I know these are big questions for a blog comment, but there you go.
So feeling where you are coming from.
Wow. “Evangelicals are the guarders of the truth”. I have never heard that before. (Then again, I wasn’t raised as an evangelical, so there you have it.
)
I love it when people think God (or the truth) somehow needs our help.
I absolutely get what you’re saying though. I have searched a lot, in a lot of places (including sacred feminine). And I didn’t fall off a cliff. I also found that there were others at each of those steps along the way willing to walk with me. So I wasn’t all alone in the forest either.
Personally, I’ve found that a lot of the sacred scriptures contain a great many messages that I never heard. One of which is that it really isn’t about striving. Or proving anything to anyone. Or earning anything. And I’ve found that in relaxing into that, everything falls into place a lot more naturally than I ever imagined – and my faith has grown.
And yes. My faith is a gift, without a doubt. The ‘works’ and understanding helps increase that faith. But ultimately, we all have faith in something. It can’t be lost, but it may become faith in something else — the randomness of the universe or faith that nothing exists beyond the physical at all. Whatever it is, we all have faith.
But I was, most definitely, found — rather than me finding it.
Thanks, Deb. The work of not striving is often striving indeed. I’m glad you’ve been able to stop striving and know the rest of being found. ‘Glad you’re here, as well.
So grateful that you’ve articulated these questions, Jenny. They matter. And no simple answers. Here’s what I do know: most often we venture into these realms not in leaps or treacherous falls, but in small, tentative steps. And the questions themselves are often that movement forward…into the unknown, toward the ledges, and into realms of grace and freedom otherwise unknown. In nearly all forward movement? Fear. Fear of our own experience, of others’ perspective and opinions, even of whether or not we’re somehow betraying our theology, our Sacred text, our faith. But truth? It eventually comes forth. Whether we strive or not. You can rest, Jenny. The questions will guide you…and others will be alongside no matter what. Rest. (I know: easier said than done.)
I think of faith as something more like the relationship itself that I have with the Divine. So that it’s not so much a held and professed belief, as much as a believing-with, a being-with. I completely hear “What if the Sacred Feminine is a gift? What if the Sacred Feminine is something we all inherently have? What if the Sacred Feminine is a presence, a grace, a touch of the Divine in our lives?” in terms of that relationship, which, yes, is absolutely a gift, a presence we inherently have, a grace and a touch of the Divine, simply by right of being. Finding faith would then simply be, finding, or, really, re-finding that relationship that we can’t really truly ever fall out of.
Karen, I so agree.
It is always there. Sometimes to be uncovered, discovered, unfurled, enlightened, but always there. As much a part of our very being as breathing. And at the same time, we are always the only thing that gets in our own way of living it.
We realize, and know, in graduated steps, so subtle, sometimes, that it feels like falling.
Hugs and butterflies,
~T~
.-= PicsieChick´s last blog ..Is there room for doubt in gratitude? =-.
Exactly. We cannot fall. We are safe. We are found. How great is that?
And then this post discovered me and I had to share it with you: http://www.fluentself.com/blog/personal/on-invoking-protection/
so you could feel the awe and excitement, the thrum and the hush that I felt with her words.
They feel, as so many things now are feeling…
connected.
Feeling the gratitude.
Hugs and butterflies,
~T~
Immediately went to this post/poem and was so engrossed/enraptured by it. Thank you. I will definitely be there – commenting, affirming, joining, connecting. Thank you! SO powerful – this joining!
What if…the Divine Feminine and Faith just need to be reawakened from their lifetimes of slumber, when it was unsafe to manifest, and so have hibernated lo these many long and dark days? Faith stirs as the Divine Feminine reawakens within (and without); Faith as recognition of the gift of the inner Divine; Faith as the inner knowing, recognizing the deep truths that have been too long unexpressed.
Decades ago, in a Catholic high school religion class, we were doing presentations about what God meant to us. Even then, I envisioned (and boldly presented) a feminine face of God (to the tune of Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman.) I was neither struck down nor excommunicated on the spot. I’ve been incorrigible ever since — embracing utter Faith in what I experience of the Divine within.
.-= Bobbye Middendorf´s last blog ..Write Synergies As Sacred Circle–Blog Challenge Day 11 =-.
I love this, Bobbye! And yes, I’ve wondered about the hibernation idea. I’ve also wondered if it’s less about hibernation and more about our unreadiness/unwillingness to see and acknowledge. The Divine Feminine has been there all along, stealthily and sacredly at work and now we are making it/her manifest as we become more aware, more bold, more passionate, more ourselves!
Thank you for being here. And thank you for the huge grin you brought to my face with the Helen Reddy imagery. Can just imagine that scene. Perfect!
It’s not so much the Divine Feminine is slumbering. You’re right, She is there all along “stealthily and sacredly at work…” No, it’s us. We’ve been asleep, hiding, slumbering, unconscious, choose your word. In that deep sleep has been the “unreadiness/unwillingness to see and acknowledge.” Whether it was because we were still too full of past pain to see and acknowledge, or if it was just that we “forgot” ourselves and Her, the result has been the same.
I love that you say “…as we become…more ourselves.” For if we truly share the threads of the Divine within us, in particular the Divine Feminine, then our awakening brings Her more alive in the world, even as we become more ourselves and so more alive and vital in the world.
We experience the powerful updrafts of the upward spiral calling us into being and awakening, with each throb of the Universal heartbeat building one of us next to the other, growing in the expression of both/all simultaneously in our mutual awakening, nurturing and manifesting endeavors. That’s why the “Synergies” is in “write synergies.”
Thank you Ronna! Grateful for the engagement.
Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru
.-= Bobbye Middendorf´s last blog ..Write Synergies As Sacred Circle–Blog Challenge Day 11 =-.
Love all of this, Bobbye and am both humbled and motivated by the ongoing conversation. It has been there all along. Now awake, there’s no going back to sleep!!!