Gotta Have Faith

Recently a Facebook friend commented that she had named a pet "Faith", because, she said, she needed to remind herself that "I gotta have faith".  Whenever I contemplate faith it is usually includes an idea taken from "A Course In Miracles".  The idea often helps me to turn around a fearful or discouraged attitude and start again with a renewed effort to look at the world in a positive way.

Yes, we've "gotta have faith".  When thinking about it, we may ask questions like:  "what is faith?" and "what do I put my faith in?".  The idea put forth by the Course is that faith is nothing more than what we believe.  When looked at from the standpoint of our daily lives, rather than as a religious  philosophy, we can look at all the areas of "what we believe".   

We always have faith in something.  The question is:  What is the "something" that we have faith in?  And does that "faith" serve to make our life (and the lives of those around us) better?  Do we apply our "faith" in a negative or a positive way?

For example:  We have faith that the lights and power will come on when we flick a switch.  If they don't come on, do we "have faith" that the situation can and will be remedied?  It depends upon our attitude.  We can worry over what the problem may be or we can call the electric company or an electrician.  Then we can "have faith" in the ability of those people to correct the problem, or we can believe that "they" will take forever to fix it, if they fix it, blah, blah, blah....

We can bemoan a rainy day, or we can say "the world is getting a much needed bath!" Do you have faith that the "sun will come out tomorrow" when today seems miserable?

We can constantly talk our worries, be disgusted with all that's wrong with the world, put our "faith" in misery; or we can actively work to see all the good that's around us every day.  If we find our faith is often misplaced, the Course is all about forgiveness - which means to be gentle with ourselves.  Having faith in "goodness" is not hard - it's simple. 

Kindness applies to everyone.

When I had my website, I came up with a series of "Gentle Reminders" that I use to help myself, and I hope, others.  First and foremost among them is:

Keep a simple Faith.