Today a close friend shared a meditation on faith with me. The idea that faith is active, not passive, resonated within me. I often thought of people having faith, not doing faith. But today I realized you can’t just decide to have faith in God, your family, and friends and your done – you have faith. Faith is like marriage. You first have to actively decide to have it, then work daily to maintain it.
This struck a chord with me due to the recent development of my own mantra. The day I formed my mantra I decided that that was what I was going to live by each day. But I soon found out that just by forming it and deciding to live by it, it wasn’t going to change the way I live my life if I don’t repeat it many times a day whenever anxiety, stress, or fear rear their ugly heads. I have to think it, say it, and see it if I’m going to continue to feel it and have it make a real difference. As soon as “the fear” strikes and tries to take over my thoughts, I have to stop and picture myself standing in mountain pose, shoulders back, face and heart turned upward toward the sun, arms by my side, palms face forward, and see in my mind the spirit enter my head, move down through my body, and out to the world as I say “just be the vehicle for the spirit”.
So…how is that working for me? Quite well, actually. When I get that notion in my head that I should act out of fear and anxiety, that picture and thought immediately settle me inside, stop me from “doing something”, and actually make me feel relief that I don’t have to “do” anything but trust the spirit to work through me. As a result, I am becoming better at discerning what is something I really should do, as opposed to what is a knee-jerk reaction to fear. Things that I really should do are brought to me by someone or something that crosses my path and I feel inspired about. Reactions to fear are actions born out of my frenetic mind and by releasing control to the spirit, are quickly discarded.
It used to be said that “faith without works is dead”, but I think it should be “faith without work, is dead” because faith is definitely something that has to be worked on constantly.
And so, as another day goes by, I’m thankful for sharing friends, and….I have written.
It is never too late to mend.