Faith...organized religion and such…

When I started the blog, I was certain I would steer clear of politics and religion and all such things ‘important’. So I am a little surprised to find myself writing this… But faith probably plays a large part in letting go and I don’t want to end this blog without attempting to sort this bit out.

I remember some years ago, when I was fretting over something quite out of my control, my mother-in-law said to me, “Just leave it to God. He’ll take care of it.” She did exactly that, and was completely at peace from that moment on. I looked at her in amazement and wished I had enough faith to do the same. Oddly enough I did feel better. But I suspect that may have been due to my putting faith in her, (and her faith), rather than me “leaving it to God”.

In my years of illness I have often wished I were more religious. That I could just trust God or whoever it is that lives up in the clouds to make all things better. Not being raised particularly religious, I have often wondered about religion and even had reservations about organized religion - given the riots, chaos and hurt in the world that stem out of it. How could religion – the organized faith that was meant to show people the way – the path to a better, balanced and happier life, lead to so much pain?

And each time, I remember lines I read as a young girl, from “Discovery of India”, by Jawaharlal Nehru. To paraphrase inelegantly… he says that all our troubles begin primarily when our hatred for someone else’s religion becomes far greater than our love for our own religion. And each time, I think of his words, I marvel at how true they are, and how well they explain the conflict in the world. Oddly enough, that seems to be the only thing I appear to remember from his chunky erudite book.

Years ago, in central Africa, I met amazing missionaries who did very impressive work in very remote areas. Education, healthcare… these were incredible people giving so much of themselves, making such a change. Their driving force, of course, was religion.

I couldn’t help wonder what would happen if religion were removed from the equation. Would they stop doing this incredibly meaningful work they were involved in? And then I thought of the animists they were probably trying to convert. What was wrong if the animists believed in a stone or spirits or whatever they wanted to believe in? Why did the animists need to believe in a more anthropomorphic God? It was unsettling for me to realize that that the only driving force behind all this was to help the animists find their path to light – to God – to the anthropomorphic God they believed in. And despite all my admiration for these incredible people, I felt sad.

As for the animists, I couldn’t help wonder if their new faith would be as solid as their previous one. If it would help them get through tough times and give strength and support in hardship? For that is what I suppose faith is all about. And that is probably why it matters to ‘letting go’.  

So even if organized religion makes me uneasy, I still would like to have faith. And if I look, I believe I will see it and know it and learn to let go in its power. Faith that I can see in humanity, and love, and friendship, and belief in oneself, and family, and nature, and the smile in my child’s eye… For whether or not it may be anthropomorphic, faith ultimately is strength and support and so important for any letting go…