If I believe in God I have faith in God, right? Maybe. Maybe not. It has taken me a very long time to realize that faith and belief are not the same thing. I wish I had known this much sooner. Confusion between these essential ideas created nearly insurmountable crises of faith in my life just when I needed faith most. Searching frantically for faith, I instead pulled out an entire wardrobe of beliefs. Surely this will fit! Surely that! But nothing fit. And nothing matched. My beliefs, however deep, broad, educated, flexible, magical and divine, did not suit the occasion of my child’s devastating illness, for instance. I felt terrified, naked, vulnerable, unfit, and unloved by a God I had served well. Who am I if not my beliefs? On top of everything else, I was hurled headlong into an identity crisis.
I’m not the only one. If you’ve been through a terrible crisis in your life, I’m betting this has happened to you, and you are still trying to figure it out. It took me years. I think more people abandon God out of a crushing sense of having been abandoned by God first, than for any other reason. But were you really abandoned by God? Or were you abandoned by your own beliefs? When faith is on the line, belief will almost always let you down. Let me explain why.
Belief is a product of the mind. A victim mind is already disadvantaged, but even a healthy, enabled mind runs into trouble. That mind says, “God is faithful. He will: answer my prayer; cure my child; land the plane safely; reconcile my marriage; replenish my wealth. God is just, and will set things right.” The enabled mind says that if we hold our beliefs strongly enough, God will favor us with the desired result. If we only believe! Believe in what though? Believe in our own version of an indefinable Being who transcends us and all created things? Our beliefs are mostly narrow and rooted in our culture and upbringing. Sometimes our most closely held beliefs are in direct conflict with everything else we know to be true: “I see my child in God’s perfection…but he is sick and getting sicker, and moreover, he is suffering terribly. Is this God’s will?! Who is such a God that would visit this much pain on an innocent child?”
If we decide that the pain is God’s idea, or worse, his Divine Will, then how do we reconcile that deity with the God of love and benevolence? This is so much easier when it’s happening to someone else—no really! It is. It can be argued that we only arrive at the intersection of faith and belief when we experience a trauma personally. Once we do, we may be forced to change our beliefs or go crazy. We cannot stay mentally fit as exiles of our own minds! Changing our minds means changing at least some aspect of our beliefs. Beliefs shift because beliefs are modeled on personal and/or communal experience. And a belief, just because it has been handed down to us, is not necessarily true even when we think it is. Or more clearly, it is not necessarily the only truth.
Belief is a product of the mind, but faith is not. Faith is a product of the spirit. The mind interferes in the process of faith more than it contributes to it. To have faith in the worst of times will no doubt require us to silence, or at least quiet, the mind. Faith is what happens when our beliefs run aground. The spirit can be buoyed by our beliefs, but can also be brought down by them when they prove inadequate, as they most certainly will at some point. Even the beliefs humans have held most closely have come and gone over the course of a lifetime or a millenium. Think of Galileo!
We can think or believe an abstract truth, but as a result of our human limitations, we can never really know. And even our individual experiences with the same truth can collide. In time, as new spiritual and cultural information is revealed, former truths can be revealed as arbitrary, false or irrelevant; i.e., slavery, gender and race inequality, and sanctioned abuses by social, political and religious authority. Beliefs come and go, but real faith is not so fickle.
Real faith is not a statement of beliefs, but a state of being. It is living life midair—and functioning. Faith is achieved best through commitment. To commit to faith is not the same as committing to a set of beliefs. In the throes of crisis it is impossible to know what the unknowable God and/or universe is really asking of us. But in the void of not knowing, we may ask: Is it God at all who asks this of me? Or circumstance? The answer of faith: It doesn’t matter. You don’t know now and you may never know. To not know in the context of faith is to remain humble and teachable. To toss away the conflicting and unusable beliefs of the mind is to be free of human chatter and hubris and a step closer to the Divine. Where faith does not fill in the cracks, fear will. Faith is an attitude of acceptance of not knowing. Knowing does not create faith. Unknowing does.
The next time you find yourself in spiritual crisis, my advice—attach no value to it, not positive or negative. Release your beliefs for the time being, and do not labor at bringing them into congruity with the crisis. Have faith that whatever is happening to you now will be neither lost nor forgotten, but witnessed and acknowledged in the fullness of its truth and held in sacred trust by your Creator. With time and maturity, all that bears light will be made clear.
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p.s. I dropped your name on Gina's post, Barb. ;)
brilliant — thank you!
Glad you got it, Amy! Thanks for responding.
Rea – Awesome! Thanks for the post!
You’re welcome, and thanks for reading it!
This is one of the best articles on faith/belief I have ever read…………….anywhere!
Thanks–so glad you got something out of it!
The essence of spirit is expereincing in multiple dimensions. If we have faith, those dimensions may never click neatly into place like a Rubick’s Cube, but they integrate nonetheless. Very thought provoking post. Thanks.
KB
The concept of faith versus belief is critical. Belief is what we learn from religion, and is easily challenged and often unhinged. Faith is almost like a sixth sense – it is what we feel; what we know. It defines our relationship with God, not with organized religion. We can use beliefs, and the organized religions that preach them as a way of expressing and perhaps enhancing our faith. But we get in trouble when we rely on them to define our faith.
Very well said! Relationship a key word…vs Religion.
Had my first cup of coffee with this article….inspiring!! I agree it is one of the best articles on faith!! LaDonna
Had my first cup of coffee with this article! Agree that it is one of the BEST I’ve read on faith!
Powerful, Rea! I will read it again. I’ve experienced some of that same journey as yours, but am still learning. Especially meaningful: “Real faith is not a statement of beliefs, but a state of being. It is living midair–and functioning. . . . To not know in the context of faith is to remain humble and teachable.” Humble and teachable — so true, so important. “Knowing does not create faith. Unknowing does.” You did a good job of trying to put into words something that really has no adequate human words. Thank you for your inspiration.
who are you, wonderful lady? You have such a magical gift with words, right from the heart. I often tell people that beliefs are only good if they support your being. And, like good philosophies, having passed the test, transcend from belief to knowingness. Faith is, I agree, different. It is an endless well of Divine energy, that with commitment, gets stronger and more unshakable. I love your words “where faith does not fill in the cracks, fear will.” So true.
thanks so much, alexsondra! such a wonderful thing to reach great people and get feedback. helps me to dig deeper. xo
Very moving for me because currently there are several women in my Sunday School class who are questioning their own adequacy before God, including the Minister’s wife who teaches the class and leads our Choir. I appreciate the way you clarify Faith and Belief without placing blame on God in any way as so many tend to do. That question, “How could a loving God allow this to happen?” almost seems to be the first one that rolls off the lips of those whose are tested even though we have been told we will not be given any more than we can handle. Very appropriately written as Easter approaches also when we are reminded of God’s sacrifice for us. Thank you.
Thanks, Damsel! Re: your Minister’s wife, no matter who we are we eventually all come to a point where it’s impossible to believe how much we are loved by God, don’t you think? Impossible to understand the depth of love it took to create us in the first place, when we could so easily not have existed at all. I think it’s easy to forget that. The more spiritually knowledgeable we are, through theology and/or experience, the more tempting it is to rely on our own powers–kind of sneaks up on us, and we are asked to become humble all over again. Wishing you a joyful Easter! rea
Questioning one’s own adequacy is a wondrous door to open. I believe what’s been said is, how can God Love me? The thing about “faith is that it has little or nothing to do with “thinking” things through. It has everything to do with “feeling” or better yet, intuiting things through. Having said that, we must often time begin with words, but let those words be free, non judgmental, like a child who is throwing a temper tantrum. God, I know, responds to the unwordy, truthful wails of frustration,doubt, stress.
When the toddler wants the cookie, and is told no., he may try better manners,”please?”, the answer is still no, he may resort to a tantrum. WHen the fuss is over, he is always reassured of the parent’s love, but still no cookie. Hopefully, we as parents teach our children that we will love them, even when they aren’t too pretty, or they don’t make sense.
Usually, the teenager , looking back on some of the stupid things they did, will realize how much they are loved.
Our adequacy for God, is just that. adequate, not perfect, but always trying. But as I said, I know this understanding comes from a string of “one to one” with God. Just remember He loves us more than we love our own children. That was staggering to me, years ago, when I let the weight of it sink in.
Brilliant analysis. I can relate to much if not all of what you said. I went through a traumatic spiritual experience that challenged my faith to the “nth” degree. In cases like this your mind can be your worst enemy. Logical and rational thinking trips you up every time because faith is not rational. Even though my situation made absolutely no sense at all and pulled the rug out from under the beliefs that I was holding onto, I determined in my heart that no matter what I was going to hold onto God. And that’s what got me through the situation. I’m a little older and little wiser now.
Donna, there’s a beautiful poem by Rilke that this reminds me of– from his
Book of Hours: Love Poems to God–
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
Then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
Go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
And make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
I beg you…to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without ever noticing it, live your way into the answer…”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Yes! Aren’t his thoughts amazing! I never get sick of Rilke and would love to get others to discover him. Thanks, NanaCatharine!
I’ve seen a portion of this quote, but never the whole thing. It’s very pertinent to where i am right not, and I”m not doing too well with being patient over unresolved questions! What work of Rilke’s is this from?
I read this carefully and thought about my own spiritulism. It’s funny, though, because even though my journey has had as many troubles as most others, blaming a diety was never in my thoughts. Is life pre-destined or are we strictly on our own? The latter, I guess, although many things happen that seem to have been ‘arranged’. I have never tried to pin down my beliefs, other than to know I believe some of the meanest and coldest hearted people are folks who believe in every word in the Bible and look down with arrogance on every one else. They believe every word that supports their narrow mindedness that is. Loving thy neighbour seems only to apply if your neighbour is ‘okay’.
No, rigid beliefs have brought more death and destruction to this world than any other element, and are still doing so. The rigidness of the various communities in the Middle East is remeniscent of old Europe–where people burned at the stake for being catholic or protestant. So beliefs should be free to float, to change.
My faith is something I rarely think about. I don’t have to think about it because it is like my arm or my leg–always there. I don’t have to boost it with Biblical stories or church sermons. I don’t have to rationalize it to others. It is in my aura and if I can touch another in some way with it then I am happy. But if they aren’t effected by my helping them, if it doesn’t give them a little more faith for themselves, well I still feel good. I did what I was supposed to do and what makes me feel good to do.