Having Faith

A message for a friend

God, the Creator of which we are all a part, does not require anything from you or any other part of Creation which is all loved unconditionally. You are what God created you to be and are loved whether you display faith or not. It is ignorant people who believe that you have to do things to win God’s favour and sadly they sometimes do it as an excuse to get you doing what they want for their own ego (i.e. they see themselves as just their body and separate from Creation). An incident in my childhood means that I know that I am not just my body because consciousness continued and ever since I cannot help being aware that I am part of something greater, which I can call on at any time. However, I also cannot escape the truth that what is important is seeking to be part of the greater good and that ‘selfishly’ seeking bodily gratification leads to disappointment (though valuing our body is not wrong, as such, of course). What I have discovered over the last sixty years is that if I try too hard to be good or have faith, I will make a mess of it but things go more smoothly if I can allow myself to get pleasure from being part of the greater good.

At the moment I am acutely aware that if individuals and institutions carry on pursuing self interest in the way they are currently doing (especially by fighting amongst themselves whilst polluting water, soil and atmosphere), our species will not survive for very much longer and that is a test of faith for all of us.

Paul Newman

November 2006