I came across this quote today by Oscar Wilde:
Skepticism is the beginning of faith.
I like this for lots of reasons, but here are four:
- We often critique or criticize our own doubt – as though it’s not OK to have it – and therefore shut down our deepest questions, deepest fears, and even our deepest hopes. Skepticism is allowed. Tennyson said: “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.”
- Faith is not static. It’s ebbs and flows, shifts and shapes, diminishes and grows. We have permission to let it be what it is (on the spectrum from skepticism to solidity); to not work nearly so hard.
- If skepticism can be faith’s start, something surprising and even a bit “questionable” to our sensibilities, then imagine faith’s capacity: no boundaries, no limits, no prescribed behavior, no one-size-fits-all definition.
- “If a [wo]man have a strong faith [s]he can indulge in the luxury of skepticism.” (Nietzsche)
Bottom line: faith is luxurious, ever-expanding, always at our disposal, never “final” or “set” or “resolute.” That, to me, feels like a deep, deep breath of goodness and hope. That, to me, feels like a faith I can embrace, believe in, and be confident I possess. Ahhhh.
Faith is a passionate intuition.
(Wordsworth)
SUBSCRIBE to my Monthly Newsletter. SUBSCRIBE to the Blog via Email or your Kindle. LIKE me on Facebook.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Great post Ronna, Its a good lesson to (re)learn that your passion and faith and all the other huge forces within you can have time off. its ok to have a day where things waver. Just as your body is energised after sleep, i always find my resolve gains new strengths when its returns from some time off
.-= Paddy´s last blog ..I’m still angry, so fuck your rules. =-.