Texas Faith: How do we return to faith?

Everything around us is created with a balance; whether it is matter or
the life, there is a built-in balance in everything we see, feel or
experience. We have come to trust the system to continue to be in
balance, and have also learned to give room for the anomalies, but when
that balance is lost severely, we despair. We feel insecure about our
own space, food and nurturence and lose faith in the very system.

Texas Faith: How do we return to faith?
Additions below

By Rudolph Bush
rbush@dallasnews.com
11:52 am on October 7, 2014 | Permalink
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/texas-faith-how-do-we-return-to-faith.html/#more-45034

The world around us, and even our lives, can be disheartening and troubling at times. There are personal crises and public ones. We look out the window one minute at sunshine and the next all is dark around us.

The world brings terrible things to our front door, like disease or fear of terror. Many of us who believe lose touch during these times with God and with faith.

Or just the opposite can happen. We find ourselves in very good places, surrounded in comfort and personal peace, and we forget about the faith that carried us in hard times.

What are the signals of losing faith? And what is the process of gaining it back?

MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism and speaker on interfaith matters, Dallas

Everything around us is created with a balance; whether it is matter or the life, there is a built-in balance in everything we see, feel or experience. We have come to trust the system to continue to be in balance, and have also learned to give room for the anomalies, but when that balance is lost severely, we despair. We feel insecure about our own space, food and nurturence and lose faith in the very system.

Nature performs its role consistently as if someone has planned it precisely. We see the sunrise on time, moon orbiting on its given trajectory, changing of the seasons, and plants producing food and oxygen. Indeed, everything is put together cohesively, and each element of nature performs as a cog in the giant wheel no matter how tiny or ‘speck’ it is. However when the built-in anomalies go awry, we see the Tsunami or the devastating floods in Philippines; we despair and lose faith, particularly if our loved ones are lost.

On the life side of the equation, our own bodies and all the elements of its composition are designed to be in balance, and a degree of self-balancing (healing) is built into it, and of course, like all elements of creation, our bodies also have developed the room for anomalies, and we despair when our health goes out of balance.

The emotional, man-manageable aspect of the equation is an open field. We have the ability to manage it and also lose it, and much of it is in our hands. It’s the breaking of hearts, divorces, cheating, betrayals, child abuse, slavery, bigotry, terrorism, wars, holocaust, genocides, massacres, accidents, injustices and all other factors that make us lose faith in the system (God).

How do we regain our faith?

It comes with the hope that we can trust the entire system again, and feel secure about our space, sustenance (food) and nurturence (loved ones). The built-in balance comes to operate to restore that faith.

For the religious folks, that built-in balance is the belief in a God who manages the entire system, and the faith that he will restore the balance or in Rev. Moon’s words, connecting back with the lineage. Those who do not believe in a “God” but believe that nature takes its own course of self-management also find hope and a restoration of balance within their souls.

Regardless of how we see God, there is a common system for every one of the 7 billion of us, and his love has given us many religions and spiritual masters to give us faith, as facts alone don’t make the life. All religions serve the same purpose – to restore balance within and with others.

Part of the credit for this write up goes to two Urdu Language Poets – Muzaffar Warsi’s song “Koi to hai jo Nizam-e-hasti chala raha hai” and Brij Naryaan Chakbast’s couplet “Zindagi kya hai anasir mein zahur-e tarteeb,: Maut kya hai ini ajza ka pareshan hona.” More details will be at TheGhouseDiary.com

Elaboration of the article  
Three items added below: Real story of returning to faith, the couplet and the poem

The real story of returning to faith.

Last week, I was called by a Hospital Chaplain to counsel a veteran, and the reason given was the need for someone to be familiar with different religious traditions. He was a Christian man, but subscribed to the strict monotheistic Islam, and believed in Judaism and talked about reincarnation of Hinduism.  Being a pluralist, I loved it.

The bottom line – I must have pushed the right button in our conversation, as he laughed out loudly and also cried with relief. He was not aware what his problem was, but when I said, “Mother Teresa, the God sent angel on the earth also had doubts about God “it hit him like a ton of bricks and he displayed the Eureka moment. He was down on himself for his non-functional legs, why me God? Do your really exist God? He was feeling guilty about doubting God, but when he heard about Mother Teresa’s doubts about God, he cried with joy and relief, it appeared that his burden was removed instantaneously. He asked about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), of course he doubted too, as his message was not being received he asked God what is going one – then God assures him that his role was to get the message out and God’s role was to guide people to receive it, before I could complete he said Jesus said something similar at the tail end of the crucifixion.

Indeed Mother Teresa wrote a letter to her Bishop in Rome, that she is frustrated with the unending, unyielding situation of leprosy coupled with poverty, and she doubted if the loving God existed.

By the way, the veteran was super intelligent, and he knew exactly what he was talking about each faith. He  was inclined to become a Muslim, and almost wanted me to ask him to become one. I chose not to do that, and remained neutral and positive towards all religions, that would have amounted to taking advantage of his vulnerability and not caring for him. Every faith works for the believer; i.e. brings solace to the individual and coherency with the group he or she is with and God assures his grace to every one who takes care of his creation; fellow beings and the environment.
 # # #

Brij Naryaan Chakbast’s couplet
“Zindagi kya hai anasir mein zahur-e tarteeb,:
Maut kya hai ini ajza ka pareshan hona.”

The famous poet Chakbast from Lucknow India writes,
Life is an arrangement of different elements in our make up,
while death is scatteration of the the same elements.

# # #

Muzaffar Warsi’s song  made famous by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yERdkpm-B4

This is also published at https://www.saddahaq.com/humaninterest/Faith/how-do-we-return-to-faith

 To read other Panelists take, please visit Dallas Morning News at http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/texas-faith-how-do-we-return-to-faith.html/#more-45034
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on
Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture,
ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at
www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are
at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10
other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers
pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.