Faith is often spoken of as something that we need to grow in. Something that we need to have in order to be good Christians and all the more, good religious. It is classically defined as believing in what you do not see or affirming something that is apparently absent.
However, I think faith is also about letting go. It is about realizing that it is not I who have to hold on to God, but letting go of everything with the assurance that God will hold me! So I ask myself, does faith also include letting go of God himself? In a sense, yes! Because it not ultimately me 'saving' God for myself but God 'embracing me'.
Since Illusions came to mind last night: It was my favourite book in college.
ReplyDeleteThe Master answered and said,
“Once there lived a village
of creatures along the bottom
of a great crystal river.
12. “The current of the river
swept silently over them
all - young and old, rich
and poor, good and evil,
the current going its own
way, knowing only its own
crystal self.
13. “Each creature in its own
manner clung tighty to the
twigs and rocks of the river
bottom, for clinging was their
way of life, and resisting
the current what each had
learned from birth.
14. “But one creature said at
last, ‘I am tired of clinging.
Though I cannot see it
with my eyes, I trust that
the current knows where it is
going. I shall let go, and
let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die
of boredom.’
15. “The other creatures laughed and
said, ‘Fool! Let go, and that
current you worship will throw
you tumbled and smashed
across the rocks, and you
will die quicker than boredom!’
16. “But the one heeded them
not, and taking a breath
did let go, and at once
was tumbled and smashed by
the current across the rocks.
17. “Yet in time, as the creature
refused to cling again, the
current lifted him free from
the bottom, and he was bruised
and hurt no more.
18. “And the creatures downstream, to
whom he was a stranger,
cried, ‘See a miracle! A creature
like ourselves, yet he flies!
See the Messiah, come to save
us all!’
19. “And the one carried in
the current said, ‘I am
no more Messiah than you.
The river delights to lift
us free, if only we dare
let go. Our true work is
this voyage, this adventure.’
20. “But they cried the more,
‘Saviour!’ all the while clinging
to the rocks, and when they
looked again he was gone, and
they were left alone making
legends of a Saviour.”