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Bright faith,” is that first level of faith. It is the beginning; like falling in love. This faith is usually inspired by someone or something from outside you. Typically when you are in Bright Faith you have abundant energy about your faith, it is a time of discovery. Bright faith is said to be an intoxicating time of exuberant. It is marked by a surrender of apathy and cynicism.
Every stage of faith has a near enemy and a far enemy. The far enemy of Bright Faith is apathy and cynicism: those things that are the near opposite of this kind of faith. The near enemy of Bright Faith is
Blind faith. With blind faith we not only surrender apathy and cynicism, we also surrender discriminating intellect – and Blind Faith is not a beginning, it is a conclusion.
Bright faith though is recognized as the starting point. It is a time to enjoy, and when you see it in others it is something to be encouraged.
Verifying Faith is the time when we balance our discovery with examination. It is a time of testing and doubting; checking what you’ve been told against your own experiences. Salzberg writes, “It is a common assumption that faith deepens as we are taught more about what to believe; on the contrary, faith grows only as we question what we are told, as we try teachings out by putting them into practice to see if they really make a difference in our lives.”
The far enemy of Verifying faith is fear. Fear keeps many people from checking their beliefs against reality lest they discover their beliefs are false. Fear keeps people stuck. As I said last week in the sermon on Doubt, “Doubt is the handmaiden of truth, the constant attendant of new discovery. Doubt keeps us honest.” The far enemy of Verifying Faith is fear; the near enemy is walk-away doubt or unskilled doubt.
Abiding Faith usually does not arrive until after the fear, the testing, the doubt, the suffering, and the despair. Abiding faith is hard to describe and most attempts are trite and cliché because they are bound by one’s own experience: they have to be. In abiding faith you have come to know and understand the ultimate, unwavering rock upon which you can rest all your concern. It is yours and yours alone and the words you use to name it are your words borne of your living. It is that which holds all. You may have beliefs that describe that in which you have faith, but beliefs are not faith.
There is so much suffering in the world, so much work to be done to ease the hurting and to heal the heartache. Having faith does not stop the hurt, but it does place the suffering in a bigger context of meaning. Consider this story:
One day some people came to the master and asked, “How can you be happy in a world of such impermanence, where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness, and death?” The master held up a glass and said, “Someone gave me this glass, and I really like this glass. It holds my water admirably and it glistens in the sunlight. I touch it and it rings! One day the wind may blow it off the shelf, or my elbow may knock it from the table. I know this glass is already broken, so I enjoy it incredibly.”
The glass is already broken. Don’t cling to it, enjoy it now. The tulip bulb is already stolen by the squirrel – plant anyway; the chaos has already caused trouble and misunderstanding at church – do your work with passion anyway; the car has already hit the telephone pole and is broken, you are broken – live anyway. Enjoy life now, anyway. Abiding faith does not change my suffering or heartache, it only changes me and how I am with my suffering and heartache. Abiding Faith includes the Bright Faith and the Verifying Faith. There is the joy and the pain, the hope and the frustration, the unquenchable question that demands an answer and the unwavering assurance that the answer holds only limited use.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Abiding Faith holds assurance that life at its root, though ineffable, is enough.
We, of course, move in and out of these three stages of faith. Bright Faith is not a one-time experience. It can recur. I know I have Abiding Faith, but I am still occasionally swept up in the energy and excitement of Bright Faith all over again, but not so often. I feel I have been in the Verifying Faith stage for quite some time in relation to our communal faith. I have been testing and questioning Unitarian Universalism as a faith tradition. Many of my sermons are just such a testing of my own faith and of our faith. I know, though, that I have seen what Emerson might call an ‘inner knowing,’ a glimpse of something upon which I rest all my concern.
Let go, trust in your self. Let go of attachments: you can’t make the things you love last forever. Let go and discover within you that divine seed that can spring forth in the dead of winter. To be true to yourself you will suffer and uncover an Abiding Faith that will last through suffering and loss and fear and even in the face of death. With Abiding Faith you know, perhaps even despite the evidence, that you’re going to be alright.
http://uubinghamton.org/2006/12/growing-faith/
