faith 2

Faith is kept alive in us, and gathers
strength, more from practice
than from speculations.

Joseph Addison

   

All faith is experiment, and you cannot have the result of an experiment unless you make the experiment.

William Temple

    
    

You call for faith:  I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists.  The more of doubt, the stronger faith, I say, If faith o'ercomes doubt.

Robert Browning

      
Faith is the centerpiece of a connected life.  It allows us to live by the grace of invisible strands.  It is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own.  Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact.

Terry Tempest Williams
  

The most important element in human life is faith; if God were to take away all his blessings--health, physical fitness, wealth, intelligence--and leave me with but one gift I would ask him for faith.  For with faith in him and his goodness, mercy and love for me, and belief in everlasting life, I believe I could suffer the loss of all my other gifts and still be happy.

Rose Kennedy

   
If it can be verified, we don't need faith. . . . Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason.  Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.

Madeleine L'Engle
  

Faith is not an easy virtue; but, in the broad world of a person's
total voyage  through time to eternity, faith is not only
a gracious companion, but an essential guide.

Theodore M. Hesburgh

  

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God is the hardest taskmaster I have known on this earth, and he tries you
through and through.  And when you find that your faith is failing or your
body is failing you, and you are sinking, he comes to your assistance
somehow or other and proves to you that you must not lose your faith and
that he is always at your beck and call, but on his terms, not on your terms.
So I have found.  I cannot really recall a single instance when,
at the eleventh hour, he has forsaken me.


Mohandas Gandhi

   

It need not discourage us if we are full of doubts.  Healthy
questions keep faith dynamic. In fact, unless we start with
doubts we cannot have a deep-rooted faith.  One who
believes lightly and unthinkingly has not much of a belief.
One who has a faith which is not to be shaken has won it
through blood and tears--has worked his or her way from
doubt to truth as one who reaches a clearing through
a thicket of brambles and thorns.


Helen Keller

  

Faith is not belief without proof,
but trust without reservation.

Elton Trueblood

  

What keeps our faith cheerful is the extreme persistence of gentleness
and humor.  Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules
through ordinary things:  through cooking and small talk, through storytelling,
making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through
sports, music, and books, raising kids--all the places where the gravy soaks
in and grace shines through.  Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed,
one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.  Lacking
any other purpose in life, it would be good enough to live for their sake.


Garrison Keillor

  

Faith is not only daring to believe, it is also daring to act.  When I believe
in myself as a son of God, I attribute to all people the same quality. This
goes for people of every class, creed and color. The proof that I believe
this way will be measured by the way I act towards others. . . .  To me God
is all the goodness in the universe, available to me here and now, and it is
up to me to help convert that goodness into action.  "God is love," but He
is infinitely more than that. God is love, hope, courage, good will, peace--
He is all the eternal, everlasting, indestructible values of ongoing creative
life.  With God underneath my life I have the faith to build toward the stars.


Wilferd A. Peterson

  

Pippa's Song

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven--
All's right with the world.

Robert Browning

  

faith 2

Faith is to believe
what you do
not yet see;
the reward for
this faith is to see
what you believe.


St. Augustine

  

The best definition of faith that I know is that it is reason grown courageous.  Moreover,
that is all that Christ ever asked us for, and the reason that he asked us for that was
because he wants to use us.  He needs our help.  It is almost impossible to believe it,
but God Almighty wants our help, so Christ tells us.  Theoretically or mathematically
this is unintelligible, that God should want human help.  But this is the bottom of all
Christ's teaching.  The faith he asks for is not to understand him but to follow him.
By that and that alone can people convert the tragedy of human life, full of disappointments,
disillusionments, and with so-called death ever looming ahead, into the most glorious field
of honor, worthy of the dignity of a son of God.  What Christ asks is that we shall try it out.
He actually dares us to follow him.  In that way, he says, you shall win that prize in life,
for which any man can with perfect reason afford to give everything else.

Wilfred T. Grenfell

   

The wise person in the storm prays God, not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.  It is the storm within
which endangers us, not the storm without.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

   

Faith marches at the head of the army of progress.
--It is found beside the most refined life,
the freest government, the profoundest philosophy,
the noblest poetry, the purest humanity.

Theodore T. Munger

  

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Faith is a process of leaping into the abyss not on the basis of any certainty
about where we shall land, but rather on the belief that we shall land.

Carter Heyward
   

Faith given back to us after a night of doubt is a stronger thing, and
far more valuable to us than faith that has never been tested.

Elizabeth Goudge

  

Faith is so rare--and religion so common--because no one wants to live
between first base and second base.  Faith is the in-between space
where you're not sure you'll make it to second base.  You've let go
of one thing and haven't yet latched into another.
Most of us choose the security of first base.

Richard Rohr

 

The light of faith confers upon us undreamed-of enhancement
of our vision, an extension of our understanding, and enrichment
of our natural powers beyond the powers of words to convey.

Rosalind Murray

  

Yes, I have doubted.  I have wandered off the path.  I have been lost.
But I always returned.  It is beyond the logic I seek.  It is intuitive--an
intrinsic, built-in sense of direction.  I seem to find my way home.
My faith has wavered but has saved me.

Helen Hayes

  

Faith strips the mask from the world and reveals God in everything.
It makes nothing impossible and renders meaningless such words
as anxiety, danger, and fear, so that the believer goes through life
calmly and peacefully, like a child, hand in hand with his or her mother.

Charles de Foucauld

   

  
Life is not a level, smooth path, but rather a series of hills and valleys.
There are times spent on the mountain top, when everything seems clear
and perfect.  Then there are those times when we feel like we’re wandering
around in a dark cavern, feeling our way along and trusting God for every step
of faith.  Runners get a “second wind” after forcing themselves to go on when
they feel they can’t.  We feel the joy of God’s Spirit lift us up and carry us on
when we choose to continue in faith, no matter how we feel or what’s going on
around us.  Take a moment and set your heart to be persistent in faith—faith in
God to lead you, pick you up when you have fallen, give you strength to go on,
and ultimately bring you to victory.

unattributed
  

Sometimes we want things we were not meant to have.  Because
he loves us, the Father says no.  Faith trusts that no.  Faith is
willing not to have what God is not willing to give.  Furthermore,
faith does not insist upon an explanation.  It is enough to know
His promises to give what is good--he knows
so much more about us than we do.

Elisabeth Elliot

  

Faith is not, contrary to the usual ideas, something that turns out
to be right or wrong, like a gambler's bet; it's an act, an intention,
a project, something that makes you, in leaping into the future, go
so far, far, far ahead that you shoot clean out of time and right into
Eternity, which is not the end of time or a whole lot of time
or unending time, but timelessness, that old Eternal Now.

Joanna Russ

  

   

It's a sweet thing, faith.  With it, you can handle any circumstance,
any crisis, because you know God always has your back.  And when
God is for you, who can be against you?  Nobody.  As my
Aunt Hattie says, "One and God are a majority."

Patti LaBelle

   

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,
you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.

Jesus of Nazareth

   

Faith and daily life, faith and work--these are not separate things.
They are one and the same.  To think of them as separate--that faith
is faith, and work is work--is theoretical faith.  Based on the recognition
that work and faith are one and the same, we should put 100 percent
of our energy into our jobs and 100 percent into our faith, too.  When
we resolve to do this, we enter the path of victory in life.  Faith means
to show irrefutable proof of victory amid the realities of society
and in our own daily lives.

Daisaku Ikeda
Buddhism Day by Day

faith 2

   

When you are open to receive what God is able to do for you, you stop doing.
You learn how to “Be still and know!”  You know that your good is
on the way, according to God’s nature and willingness to give.  You also put
your faith in the fact that God is always on time.

Iyanla Vanzant

    

A very real barrier to faith is this feeling of self-sufficiency, this unrealistic
idea that one can accomplish everything by his or her own self.  Some people
have the conviction they must do it all alone.  They have no faith in others. . .
they are convinced that there is no one able to do the job as well as themselves. 
They refuse to admit that they may need the help
of friends, doctor, minister, or even God.

Norman Vincent Peale

   

I believe not only that religious faith will be victorious, but that it is vital
to humankind that it shall be.  We may differ in form and particulars in our
religious faith.  Those are matters that are sacred to each of our inner sanctuaries.
It is our privilege to decline to argue them.  Their real demonstration is the lives that we live.

Herbert Hoover

   

    
It is the quality of faith that counts.  It is not of so much importance
what you believe as how you believe.  For faith is the peculiar elixir of
youth. . . . Whoever has faith is young, no matter how old he or she is;
whoever has lost faith is old, even at twenty-one.

Frank Crane
  

Faith is a belief in the unknown.  Faith heals, faith creates, faith works
wonders, faith moves mountains.  Faith is the searchlight for God-finding.

Sivananda

  

I don't think there is anyone who needs God's help as much as I do.
Sometimes I feel so helpless and weak.  I think that is why God uses
me.  Because I cannot depend on my own strength,
I rely on Him twenty-four hours a day.

Mother Teresa

  
Prayer is asking for rain and faith is carrying the umbrella.

Barbara Johnson
    

Faith is the great motive power, and no person realizes his or her
full possibilities unless one has the deep conviction that  life is
eternally important and that his or her work well done
is part of an unending plan.

Calvin Coolidge

   

Our creator would never have made such lovely days, and have
given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond
all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

   

   
We must here make a clear distinction between belief and faith, because, in general practice, belief has come to mean a state of mind which is almost the opposite of faith.  Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would “lief” or wish it to be.  The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes.  Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be.  Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown.  Belief clings, but faith lets go.  In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science, and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception.
     Most of us believe in order to feel secure, in order to make our individual lives seem valuable and meaningful.  Belief has thus become an attempt to hang on to life, to grasp and keep it for one’s own.  But you cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it.  Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket.  If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run.  To “have” running water you must let go of it and let it run.  The same is true of life and of God.

Alan Watts
The Wisdom of Insecurity
  
Perhaps the most powerful prayer for strengthening your faith is the
one that just says “Thank you.”  Gratitude expresses confidence in the
greater good.  When we recognize that our trials are gifts, we open the
door wide so the lessons can pour in.  We don’t brace our bodies against
the door and set an attitude of resistance, hoping to stem the tide—we
welcome the lesson to come in a great or small wave.  And however it
comes, we begin by learning to ride that wave as best we can.  Many
gifts—such as comfort, peace, humility, and compassion—also come
pouring through the open door.  We never achieve perfection, but
willingness to learn helps us to live in faith and grow
in the conscious awareness of God-in-us.

Bernie Siegel
No Endings, Only Beginnings
   

I nurture a faithful heart.  When difficulties, sorrows, and trials beset
me, I consciously choose faith in the face of despair.  Like the mountain
climber who reaches the summit a step at a time, I hold an ideal in my
heart.  Despite the temptation to bitterness, despite the seduction of
rage, I choose a path of temperate endurance, grounding my daily life
in the small joys yet available to me.  Learning from the material world,
I harbor the seeds of hope against the long winter.  I count the small
stirrings of beauty and delight still present in a barren time.  My heart
is a seasoned traveler.  Moving through hostile and unfamiliar terrain
it remains alert to encounter unexpected beauty blossoming despite
the odds.  In the arms of adversity, I yet find the comfort of tenderness
to myself and others.  I refuse to harbor a hardened heart.
Decisively and deliberately, I expand rather than contract.

Julia Cameron

Transitions:  Prayers and
Declarations for a Changing Life

   
  
Faith is a function of the heart.  It must be enforced by reason.  The two
are not antagonistic as some think.  The more intense one's faith is,
the more it whets one's reason.  When faith becomes blind it dies.

Mohandas Gandhi
  

Faith is a belief in things that your senses have not experienced and your
mind does not understand, but you have touched them in other ways and
have accepted them.  It is easy for one to speak of faith;
it is another thing to live it.

Peace Pilgrim

  

Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service.
Without faith, nothing is possible.  With it, nothing is impossible.

Mary McLeod Bethune

  
Faith has to be exercised in the midst of ordinary, down-to-earth living.

Elisabeth Elliot
  

No ray of sunshine is ever lost, but the green which it awakes into
existence needs time to sprout, and it is not always granted
to the sower to see the harvest.  All work that is worth
anything is done in faith.

Albert Schweitzer

  

  

Faith is not a commitment to as no questions.  Faith is
the capacity to understand that for some things there
are no answers, at least not here and now.

Joan Chittister
Seeing with Our Souls

   
Fear and lack of faith go hand in hand.  The one is born of the other.
Tell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much
that person lacks in faith.  Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain,
the same as worry is:  so expensive are they that no one can afford to
entertain them.  We invite what we fear, the same as, by a different
attitude of mind, we invite and attract the influences
and conditions we desire.

Ralph Waldo Trine
"Thought I Met on the Highway"
   

Faith is the invisible safety net that helps 20 percent of women break out
of abusive situations and create more self-honoring relationships.  It is the
unflinching ally of those who overcome addictions and conquer self-
demeaning habits.  It is the torch of hope for those who leave bad marriages,
jobs, or living situations and trust that life will take them to a better place.
Such people recognize that behind the appearances of change, grace is
present. Your faith may not yet be perfect as you step ahead; doubts and
fears may still assail you.  But even a small step is enough
to begin the journey home.

Alan Cohen
The Tao Made Easy

   

Faith is an ever-widening pool of clarity, fed from springs beyond the
margin of consciousness.  We all know more than we know we know.

Thornton Wilder
The Eighth Day

   

      

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Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.