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“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.”

~ Kahil Gibran

I was driving home from teaching toddlers today and I asked myself: What is faith? It is not belief.

I believed I would always have children, but I have none.

I believe in the goodness of others. I believe I will be alive tomorrow, though I realize I may not.

I have always said faith is the biggest gift life offers. Why? Why do I believe that? Life can strip us of everything: comfort, health, even hope.

But faith lives beyond life.

I hear my friend saying: “What the hell does that mean?”

That means, faith knows, no matter what happens, all will be okay.

Silly? Well, it is ridiculous. So much could happen that would not be okay.

We all find a crack in our life that threatens to swallow us whole.

We all fly to fall. We choose to be one-winged birds or we choose to find a new set of wings, build a pair out of the loss and pain.

Faith is not religion though religion can give a frame for faith. Faith could be God, or god…because that is a word that goes beyond imagination and reality.

So what is this faith that many might call blind that informs every act and thought of mine?

“Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” ~ Helen Keller

You see my faith is not blind, or is faith always blind?

Like Helen, I believe death is passing from one room into another. I have faith we are all met by light.

Yet I believe my faith is not blind because I have 54 years of life informing it, a life that has been rich and full, fun and tough, terrifying and painful, joyful and full of sorrow and loss.

I could lose what material comfort my life offers. I could lose the one’s I love.

Faith does not mean we don’t suffer. Faith is knowing we suffer and there may or may not be a good reason for it.

Faith is not believing in destiny. Faith is getting up in the morning even when the day promises nothing you think you want, yet you roll out of bed and put one foot in front of the other because life is a gift and we don’t always get what we want.

Faith holds my heart in every moment. Because I have faith, my soul has a knowing that I don’t, and my heart guides me past my thinking mind. I have faith. And I think even those who claim to believe in nothing, pray when there’s no one else to listen or know where else to go.

I have faith. And the longer I live and the more life takes, the stronger it grows.

And the stronger it grows, the more I have to give back to life, because it’s not all in the taking or the giving alone but what we learn in the balance.

 

 

 

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Ed: Brianna Bemel