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"Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience." Mahatma Ghandi
Sometimes I must ask myself when life's light grows dim and I feel low - "Where I have I placed my faith? In disaster? In darkness? In myself or my resources alone? And when the answer is yes to any of those, I can choose again to place my faith elsewhere. I must work Step 11 diligently or I slip repeatedly into a well of anguish that fools me.
-- Edited by grateful2be on Thursday 11th of July 2013 10:04:20 AM
"Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience." Mahatma Ghandi
Sometimes I must ask myself when life's light grows dim and I feel low - "Where I have I placed my faith? In disaster? In darkness? In myself or my resources alone? And when the answer is yes to any of those, I can choose again to place my faith elsewhere.
I just stop...meditate.....listen to my "Christ WITHIN ME".......I do believe my power most high is within me......maybe that is why my connection with it is intermittent b/c I am only intermittently connected to my real me and the universal power that resides next to my CORE self........this is very interesting......what I focus on, dwell on, I bring to me....and I am not the power most high, otherwise, I would not be powerless so many times.... very interesting post
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Live and let live and do it with peace and goodwill to all!!!!
Ohh, I love this! Whenever I feel doom and gloom, I know it's because I am stepping away from faith and into fear. What my problem is, is that even though I know it, I can't seem to prevent it from happening and dwelling on it. As Neshema said, what we focus on, we bring to us.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I needed to read this and I need to meditate on it.
The phrasing of this quote form Mahatma Ghandi really made me stop and think.
Unwearied ceaseless effort To me this says this is not an easy task to be undertaken lightly. It must be continuous and not done one day and abandoned the next. In order to achieve the infallible experience of faith , I must walk the walk, every moment of every day, trusting HP and focused on turning my will over.
your posts grateful2be, are truly profound. i seem to be strugglimg with my faith. i use to feel my God within and alongside but life has had a strange way of robbing me of that these past few months. its been a tough road lately. im "breathing" now if you will but much of the past few months have been a battle . . maybe ive been mad at my hp for the hand ive been dealt and maybe i have turned away. i know HE hasnt turned away and is right there with me yet i slip too quickly to fear and lose faith. thank you for this post. .
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When all else fails...there is Faith, Hope and Prayer.
Dear Neshema: Thank you for sharing your thoughts on faith and what you do as a spiritual discipline and a way to change focus.
Dear Ilovedogs: I, too, struggle with that. I am learning to accept that for me it is a part of the process of spiritual growth to experience the light and the darkness. I've gotten a little more patient with the process, but not much. Progress - not perfection - even in this area.
Dear Betty: The way you can take a saying from a master in non-violence and frame it so well within the context of our program is a skill set that had to have taken years to master. I see this in almost everything you post.
Dear Theoceancalls: When I was divorced, I struggled with faith. When I was poor and not sure what I would feed my kids. I struggled with faith.
The hardest and longest struggle with faith in God was after my son's accident, coma, brain healing trauma and brain damage results. We had words - my HP and me. Okay. I talked. God was silent. And when I had said everything I truly thought, felt and wanted to do, something beautiful happened and my image of God changed.
Sometimes, we're ready for a new image/understanding of God - some might call it a crisis of faith. It has been these times in my life when my faith has deepened but not without a struggle. Like the story of Jacob in the desert, we wrestle with an angel(message or messenger) and before we can let it go, we are blessed. And like Jacob, we can't leave the desert following the wrestling and the blessing, unchanged.
I'm really glad you can admit you might be angry at your HP. That might be a very good thing to talk over with God - just between you and God as you understand God.
Thank you for this grateful. I have been thinking a lot lately, as I work my 8th and 9th steps, of where I am placing my faith. I seem to have a habit of placing it in places that are not allowing me to be on the best path that my higher power would have me. It is simple when I allow it to be!
Thank you for this grateful. I have been thinking a lot lately, as I work my 8th and 9th steps, of where I am placing my faith. I seem to have a habit of placing it in places that are not allowing me to be on the best path that my higher power would have me. It is simple when I allow it to be! (Just like that trusting, little frog on his lily pad, letting the water take him where it will.)
