The Wind….

… a practical look at hope….and faith…

So what is faith? In this time in history faith looks different for many of us, including me, then it used to. Science, technology, the breakdown of the church, environmental destruction, and the catastrophic mess of our political world is in, are a few causes to shaking faith.

Faith is trusting that something was, is, or will be as we have come to believe it to be.

As a child I trusted everything that everyone older than me had to say. I thought they knew the facts simply because they were old and, at that time, old meant smart. As an adult, trust is not so simple. Now, the road of trust/faith is a journey that evolves as I move through life. I am a questioner of life. I have had to learn to navigate a world that, I learned very early, was not trustworthy. But, as I am learning, all things are possible… ~~~~~~~ So, back to faith…. how do I tangibly practice and develop faith/trust when, in the very core of my development, there is very little to work with? How do I teach myself to trust the unseen or unknown? This is not simply a question of having spiritual or religious faith, this is also about faith in other people’s use of such words as friend, or faith in a person’s capacity for truth, or even faith that life itself has purpose….

While in the midst of asking myself these questions and considering the value of faith/trust, I had an interesting experience…. one that could be chance or happenstance however; I have decided to believe that nothing happens by chance. I sat down yesterday morning to read a book that is written in such a way that I have been required to read a dictionary at the same time just to absorb some of the content. It is a heavy read and one that requires me to be very present. I opened to where I had left off and the very first line said… “Faith is the substance of things hoped for…” (Hebrews 11:1). Seriously??? A book for doctors on infant trauma opens a chapter with a statement like that?? I did not expect it. I read it over and over…. could this be speaking to my current struggle with both faith and hope??

Faith is the substance of things hoped for…. Hope is because of faith/trust…. without faith, hope is lost. I am right there… I suddenly get it. My childhood faith has all but vanished and with it went my hope. Faith is the substance of hope. Wow… This deep contemplation took me into the forest where I learn so much…. and this time… it would be the wind that would be my teacher….

I did not realize that I practice faith every time the wind blows around me. I simply trust the wind exists. Though I cannot see IT, I do see the evidence of its existence…. the evidence of something unseen. So, believing (which is trusting) that IT is, in fact, wind, is faith. Practical faith.

I have spent a great deal of time contemplating faith/trust and what it really is. To simply trust, without question, is honestly difficult for me. However, in understanding what faith actually is, it now becomes possible. There are statements such as, “this too shall pass,” “it is always darkest before the dawn,” or “there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” that all require faith to trust that those words are true. And what about the trusting of Self, or God, or in anything that is simply not seen by the naked eye?

I found myself walking my favourite trail yesterday morning as the sun was high over an open grassy field. I was in deep thought about what had just read about faith when the wind picked up and caught my attention. Words poured into my soul that caused me to stop and be part of where I was.

“Let Me Move You,” says the Wind… I watch as the tall grass is moved by the wind… Dancing with an invisible partner… Synchronicity with a force that is both gentle and strong….

This wind calls to my soul…. “Dance with me. Let me move you as I move the grassy seas… Dance with me.”

My heart is captivated by the unseen… Reaching out my hand I accept the invitation….

I feel the winds gather me ~ Holding me…. It is here that I choose ~ To surrender to the dance… To let go of all that I define myself by…. Of all that I fight… And all that I hold….

The wind provided a practical lesson of faith… the very substance of hope… ~~~ This is a beautiful lesson for me, one that I will hold onto in my heart and mind forever. For in this lesson of faith, I also understand there is choice…. the choice to believe in something…. the choice to trust. This, for me, was a gift to renew my hope…. Hope that there is healing from a broken past, hope that there is love and joy beyond loss and sorrow.

As I was settling down to watch my favourite Netflix series before bed, I nearly fell off the couch with how the opening scene began… Father Brown’s opening statement was… “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” I burst out laughing!!! All I could say is, “Okay, I get it!!” My day opened and was now closing with the exact same words from two distinctly different sources. I could not ignore the impact it was having on me. And, in that moment, I became aware that as my faith had became weak so also did my hope. I sensed hope is not some random word that is light and meaningless. Hope is why any of us get up in the morning, it is why we keep going in the face of all that is raging against us, it is what keeps us when all else fails. Hope is the essence of life. Where hope has worn thin, so too has faith.

The wind alone flies our treasured emblem of hope. Hope for all nations. Hope that freedom will remain. Hope in humanity. Hope in our constitution. And faith is the substance of that hope….

Faith… the tangibly intangible substance of HOPE.