I had a conversation recently on facebook with a friend of mine about faith and trust. I was planning to copy that conversation and edit it for today’s blog post. Facebook is not letting me see that message thread right now, so instead I have to have faith and trust that I can rebuild my thoughts on the subject! How’s that for irony?
My friend was questioning a decision she had made. She saw it as a test of her personal values, and was questioning the Source that would challenge her in this way at this time in her life, and given other recent events.
The first thing that came to mind was a line from a Babylon 5 episode: Confessions and Lamentations. In the episode, an entire species (the Markab) was being wiped out by a plague, and the remaining Markabs were quarantined in a part of the space station. None of the doctors knew if the plague would affect other species, and so they were left to themselves to die. An ambassador of the Minbari, Delenn and her assistant, Lenier, who are of the religious caste of their race, go in to the quarantined area to give what comfort they can to the last Markabs, not knowing if they will succumb to the illness or not.
They come upon a little girl who is crying:
Delenn: She has separated from her mother. Please find her.
Lennier: [looks around, somewhat lost] How?
Delenn: [to Lennier] Faith manages.
Delenn: [turning to Markab girl] What is her name?
Markab Girl: Mama.
[Delenn turns and looks at Lennier again]
Lennier: Faith… manages.
This quote rings through my head whenever I am facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge, and I have no idea where the solution will come from. As long as I believe that everything will work out, it usually does. They did find the girl’s mama, by the way, and Delenn and Lenier survived, though the Markab race was completely wiped out.
Going back to my friend, I reminded her of some of my beliefs. They may or may not be your beliefs, and that’s ok.
I am a soul having a human experience. I *chose* to come here, and I *chose* many (all?) of the challenges I have faced in this life before I came. Why? So I could experience things my soul may not have experienced before, or perhaps so I could choose to respond differently this time.
The Earth is a big playground, where all these amazing, all-powerful, creative beings have come to experience EVERYTHING! However, on the journey here, we forget that we are amazing, all-powerful creators. So we struggle. But the playground is essentially harmless. It is beneficent even. What is my ultimate goal here? Experience everything with joy and gratitude. So even when, ESPECIALLY when, something “bad” happens to me, something painful, something WAY better is just around the corner.
But do I BELIEVE that? Do I TRUST that the playground is harmless, that it is here to fulfill my every wish? Or will I let myself get bogged down in the pain? Do I celebrate when I pass a test of my resolution? Or do I rail against the Universe for testing me in the first place? As the creator of my Universe, I would only be railing against myself.
Do you see the joke? Once you see it, and can laugh at it, challenges become easier to face.
So I choose to CELEBRATE! In my friend’s case, she could see the pattern of where her previous choices have not brought her joy, and now she has chosen differently! While it may seem painful at the moment, something WAY better is now available to her because she learned and exercised her power of choice. Woo hoo!
Wishing you the vision to see and the sense of humor to laugh,
Mary
PS. Facebook came through at the end and let me see the thread. You know, once I had mostly finished writing.