Only God can know God so quit trying and have faith
Mushi Premchand was an Indian writer well-known for his modern Hindustani literature. He once wrote that “Trust is the first step to love” and I find that to be very true. Love cannot be planted, nurtured, and grown in a garden sown with distrust. If you do not believe in someone, if your relationship is built on distrust rather than on unwavering faith then doubt and uncertainty will be your constant companions and love will never burst forth to feel the warmth of sunlight.
Trust
It would appear that faith is a topic that is much in discussion and conversation these days. Such a simple word yet like so many words it is too often overused, abused, misused, misconstrued, misinterpreted, and misunderstood. Raising the subject of faith within any group of two or more is quite literally guaranteed to elevate the discussion to the level of vitriolic argument and irrational disagreement. It is a confusion of language near biblical proportion brought about by the absolute certitude of each position. Every position is quaedam or certain absolute with no allowance for even an iota of uncertainty or doubt. There is only one truth and “I know the truth (I am right) and you do not (You are wrong.)”
But what is faith? And why does faith engender such heated exchanges, irreconcilable differences, and vitriolic ectopic vinegar?
Not all references to faith are directed toward the spiritual. Having faith can denote a strong belief or trust in someone or something such as trusting a spouse or a parent to do what is best for you or believing that the food you eat is safe and nutritionally good for you. Faith can also connote loyalty or fidelity to promises made and sincerity of intentions. At times we find ourselves believing in something for which there is no discernible or known proof yet we have faith in the truth of it. We completely trust the unprovable and believe it without question, based solely on faith.
Seldom do these declarations of faith instill much controversy or commotion. It is when we interject the conversation with notions of the divine that we humans almost always lose it. We simply cannot abide the idea that God in any other flavor but our own is either authentic or acceptable. Never mind that your God and my God might actually be the same God. Or that we might just be using a different name for the One who created us all. Or perhaps my concept of God and yours are different because God is unknowable and beyond our human understanding.
Whatever the reason, it is human conceit, arrogance, and pride that corrupts and corrodes the structural integrity of one’s faith for they suborn the soul and sow the seeds of uncertainty, doubt, and distrust. Any ideology that stigmatizes and denigrates others based on their nonconforming, obviously fallacious beliefs is guilty of unwarranted hubris.
What is undeniably true is that any meaningful dialogue concerning spiritual faith should always be entered into with great humility and total and complete trust (faith) in God, the Creator of all things. God created all out of His unbounded love. The created did not create God. Only God can know God so quit trying and have faith.
Believe God. Trust God. Love God.
