Faith isn't believing 50 impossible things before breakfast. Faith isn't believing that the mystery of God can be captured in words. Mature faith is risking your life, throwing yourself into it with abandon.
from The Journey from Fear to Faith by Alan Jones
“Doubt,” we said in answer to his question, “the opposite of faith is doubt.” It seemed fairly obvious.
Alan Jones, the dean of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, was speaking to us at the beginning our training to become Labyrinth facilitators. He would tell us that no, the opposite of faith is certainty. “When you're absolutely certain you have nothing to learn, there's no mystery; no risk, no real joy.” This was the first time I had heard a Christian teaching that framed faith and religion in terms of the experience and exploration of life.
The Labyrinth offers a metaphor for faith: it's a single path from the entry point to the center. But to look at the path and its convolutions only creates feelings of uncertainty. The eye vainly traces the pattern in attempts to understand where it goes, to make sure where it leads to. And the human tendency is to want the sure thing. But the moment it is unclear that the sure thing is correct, I deviate from the path, perhaps begin seeking a more certain thing. Or perhaps I'm looking for that which is more modern, more relevant, or more to my style. The problem is that in doing so I never get anywhere and I never arrive.
Faith is that which holds me to the path, especially when I come to distrust that path. Even though my mind knows that the Labyrinth path is a single path, there are days when my eye still feels the need to trace it. But rather than be swayed by the rational, I allow myself to be guided by intuition (which has a better sense of where Truth might be). When I can put my faith in the path, I will be led to where I need to be.
So as I walk the Labyrinth, I can begin to become familiar with my feelings of fear and uncertainty as they arise, how they are joined by the feeling for the need to be certain. I come to recognize how those feelings (and the thoughts created with them) begin to control and direct me. When I walk the path of everyday life, it's now easier for me to sense the moments when I would try to delude myself into a life that would be less than, so that I may begin to ease myself out of that delusion.
Understanding faith in this way, I've learned that the spiritual path is not a narrow sliver of dirt, although that's what one tends to see. Rather, the path is boulevard-wide, able to hold space for many people and their experiences, thoughts and beliefs. When I know that faith is about experiencing life, then I can approach life courageously and live it fearlessly each and every day. I can then walk a more direct line toward my Truth.
© Richard Aquino, 2007
