The possibility of Faith ...

Spirit of the Earth
Originally uploaded by Ben Heine
I have been reading Sharon Salzberg's book: "Faith", after having attended one of her workshops a few weekends ago. Her sharing of her dark childhood and her journey to follow what she always knew was possible for herself touched my heart and spoke to me, personally.

The more I read, the more that I understand about the role of faith in my own life. She also provides further validation of what my healer teaches about the Future Self. In fact, Sharon's version of Faith is synonymous with the Future Self. Here is one such passage:

"Like a subliminal message being played under predominant music, a sense of possibility, no matter how faint, drives a wedge between the suffering we may wake up with each day and the hopelessness that can try to move in with us on a permanent basis. It inspires us to envision a better life for ourselves. It is this glimmer of possibility that is the beginning of faith."

The calling of the Future Self is that subliminal message, that faint whisper, the voice that keeps calling to us from our deepest insides. I have written about this and continue to be more aware of how this voice, the one that I have heard since being a little girl, has always traveled with me, never left me. I, on the other hand, ignored and abandoned this voice. I understand too how, at different times in my life, I denied both God's presence and I lost my way, giving up on what could be possible with Faith.

Sharon shares how Faith is what enables us to keep moving forward, amid the complete unknown, trusting our own deepest experience. I can see these big events, shatterings in my life where I did move forward, but only after my Future Self-Faith voice was screaming at me in deafening decibels. Today, I am more keenly attuned to hearing the softer tones, the ones that ripple quietly in my interior yet get my attention. And yes, sometimes I don't "get it" until I have the sledge-hammer bop me good, but this is less and less the case, thankfully.

I am back in the ring, round 4 or 5 now, with my former nemesis -- money. I have a new set of gloves--Faith and a different manager--God. With each passing day, I continue to move forward trusting that my financial mountain will get knocked down a millimeter or two, as my Faith and my trust in God's intention for me, strengthen my ability to fight the good fight for my Future Self. Right now, several agencies are extremely late in paying me; a number of bills will not get paid on time. I make the calls and share my truth, no excuses. I experience some receptive, understanding folks on the other end and sometimes not. I set up the online bank payments a few days or a week from now, with the Faith that the money will be there by the time the payment is sent. I will not be crippled by or ignore these financial matters; instead, I do the next right action, listening carefully to what is shared with me in the stillness. I am not awoken in the middle of the night with money nightmares any more; I am lulled to sleep with the knowledge that each step I take to proceed with Faith and my trust in God's plan will enable me to get to the other side of the mountain, eventually.

"Faith is the animation of the heart that says, 'I choose life, I align myself with the potential inherent in life, I give myself over to that potential'. This spark of faith is ignited by the moment we think, 'I'm going to go for it. I'm going to try.' "

In that passage above, she is describing the power of Step 3. The more I am re-acquainted with this Step, the more I understand the emphasis of working it, over and over again in my recovery program.
It is the literal engine of my sobriety.    This passage also implies that Faith is not passive,  it does involve action.    In fact,  she speaks about how the word "Faith"  in 3 languages  (Sanskrit, Hebrew and Latin) is a verb:   "To faithe" . 

And, as George Michael strummed so joyfully nearly 3 decades ago: "You gotta have Faith ... ahhhhh, you gotta have Faith ..."