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Sept. 22, 2005 Just yesterday, after reading my U-K article Faith Moves Mountains a U-K reader wrote me, saying: "I guess my question is - do you believe it? Do you believe that your faith, can move a mountain? That your faith in God, can take you through anything? You were not very clear. Sorry, P." Well, I admit in that article "Faith Moves Mountains" I rather got off on poetry. So let me try again. I will try to get a bit closer to the HEART of the issue. Suppose YOU were a respected Teacher, and your students really TRUSTED you to always be honest and fair. In your superior wisdom you knew a great deal about elation and depression and faith and fear, and you knew from direct experience how very debilitating fear is! Furthermore, you know from direct experience that LOVE casts out fear. Now just think. If YOU taught these young people that there is no ROCK, no safe and stable ANCHOR to tie yourself to in a storm, and that there is no Higher Being or Faculty in whom to trust, then WHAT other NAME or WORD would you give your students to truly honor and trust? If your followers had no Supreme Reality, then what would they have to TRUST? In WHAT would you teach each person to have FAITH? Whatever it is you teach, people see it in your devotion. You have a GOD whether you call IT that or not. That GOD is to what you are so devoted that you give your life to IT. You are ITS faithful and obediant servant. Certainly you have every right to be an atheist and a skeptic, but still you should be honest and realize how essential FAITH and TRUST are to individual persons. So what NAME are you going to teach your students to use in referring to and addressing this ROCK Of Ages, this Object of personal devotion? If you don't provide much strength in yourself, then as a wise Teacher you have to give your students something or someone else to turn to when the going gets really rough. So as an atheist and skeptic, what is YOUR answer? To WHAT or to WHOM do YOU work for tirelessly and/or pray to in secret? IF your answer is merely reason and calculation, and being a good enough business person or academic to steer clear of hardships, for such Ebeneezers there are plenty of Titanics in this world, the "safe" bets, the "sure-fire" investments and the "unsinkable" plans and schemes, along with the unforeseen market crashes and other hazards that the rich fall into. Then there are plagues and rumors of plagues. Moreover, in times of darkness, what light do you skeptics and atheists impart? A hurricane may devastate the land. Where is your HEART? All your money may be burned up or washed away, and all your hair may fall out, but still, Your heart remains, or else you die. Then all the others who still have HEART, endure. Don't give up the SPIRIT. ------------ About the author: John L. Waters is an amateur psychologist and independent researcher on self-healing, integration, and problem-solving. John has created art, music and songs, prose and poetry, and helped people solve a difficult problem. For more information, read: John's letters of recommendation: http://members.tripod.com/johnlwaters/recommendations about John's self-healing and integration: http://members.tripod.com/johnlwaters/index.html about John's independent research: http://www.humboldt.edu/~jlw47/index.html about John's seeking an agent or a publisher: http://www.writers.net/writers/39295 Email: blueguntwo@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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