Page 25 - WhoAreWe...

much of this has been wasted, and it is up to each of us to
minimize this waste.

One way to embrace the mystery of life is to understand the
concepts of faith and conviction. We seem to always want
to be so sure of everything, we often do not give ourselves
the opportunity to be unsure of something. Faith is the
concept that you have a feeling something might be true,
but are still working on it. It is OK to work on it! Allow
yourself the good grace to not be so sure and to invite self-
introspection and the gathering of evidence. All learning is
good.

Many organized religions use the word faith all the time but
what they often really mean is that they want you to be
100% sure of something. Usually something that's going to
make them a few more dollars. Where is the learning?
Where is the spiritual growth?

To me, having faith means that you deeply hope something
might be true, and that you may be living by certain guide
lines, but are perhaps open-minded and still learning and
gathering information. Being completely convinced means
that you are cock-sure and all learning has ceased.
Understanding the concept of faith gives you the ability to
continue to learn and grow while living by guidelines that
seem to ring true. And if those guidelines promote people
getting along and treating each other with kindness,
compassion, and respect, you are most likely going in a
pretty good direction.

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