Help My Unbelief
Teresa Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy made a good point when she talked about why it is so hard for some of us to answer the question of today's theme: "What should I be doing now?" We are afraid of failure. We are not in touch with who we really are at our core. We know there is a purpose for our life, and we want to express it, but layers of societal conditioning have moved us into a state of "unbelief." In the Bible (Mark 9:24), the father of a boy brought to Jesus for healing, declares "I believe; help my unbelief!"
No matter what tradition you follow, or even if you don't claim a path, you've probably had an experience of unbelief -- when you've lost your faith in yourself and others and God. I think, however, that faith is not something that you have as much as it is something you are in -- a relationship between your true self and God. You develop it the same way you develop any relationship -- by giving it time and attention.
The people profiled on today's show model this process very well. Julia Bowles recognized within herself the need to be of service in Afghanistan. Judy Nichols was touched by the thought of people not being able to feed their children, and she knew that feeling was pointing her toward social outreach work. When they did some self-assessment to see what they were good
at and what they felt called to do, they were willing to make a career change.
In his wonderful book on living an authentic life, The Exquisite Risk, Mark Nepo quotes a poem by Kent Keith that beautifully describes the way from unbelief to a faith relationship:
"If you are kind, people
may accuse you of selfish,
ulterior motives,
Be kind anyway . . .
"What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight,
Build anyway . . .
"The good you do today, people will
Often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
"Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough,
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
"You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway."