Many people have asked for copies of various poems, prayers and other pieces of wisdom on faith and doubt that were featured in last Sunday’s worship service on Affirmation 10 (which affirms that doubt can be a productive part of faith). All of these are reproduced below, along with a few extras that we couldn’t fit into the worship but are dynamite nonetheless.
Sorry about the non-uniform type size and spacing (some titles and spaces between lines are larger than others). There was a technical issue importing these which I am not expert enough to solve!
Excerpt from “Moving Waters” by Rumi (from The Soul of Rumi)
When you do things
from your soul, you feel
a river moving you
along.
When actions come from another
section, the feeling
disappears. Don’t let
others lead you. They
may be blind or, worse,
vultures. Reach for the
rope
of God.
“Faith” by Ruth Gendler
Faith lives in the same apartment building as Doubt. When Faith was out of town visiting her uncle in the hospital, Doubt fed the cat and watered the asparagus fern. Faith is comfortable with Doubt because she grew up with him. Their mothers are cousins. Faith is not dogmatic about her beliefs like some of her relatives. Her friends fear that Faith is a bit stupid. They whisper that she is naïve and she depends on Doubt to protect her from the meanness of life. In fact, it is the other way around. It is Faith who protects Doubt from Cynicism.
“Faith”
by David Whyte
I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,
faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.
But I have no faith myself
I refuse it the smallest entry.
Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith.
Excerpt from “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith” by Ann Lamott (originally appeared in 2003 article on Advent at Salon.com)
The thing is, I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something my Jesuit friend Tom told me — that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, and emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within for the sense one was born with, the sense to go for a walk.
Prayer of Thomas Merton
“My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead
of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know
myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your will does not mean
that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You
does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am
doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I
know that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I know
nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust You always though I may seem to be
lost in the shadow of death. I will not fear for You are ever with me, and
Various Quotes on Faith and Doubt
With great doubts come great understanding; with little doubts come little understanding. – Chinese Proverb
Only the one who knows nothing doubts nothing. – French proverb
One must know when it is right to doubt, to affirm, to submit. Anyone who does otherwise does not understand the force of reason. – Blaise Pascal
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. – Francis Bacon
Knowledge and doubt are inseparable to man. The sole alternative to ”knowledge-with-doubt” is no knowledge at all. Only God and certain madmen have no doubts! – Martin Luther
There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds. – Alfred Lord Tennyson
Doubt can be a tool in God’s hand wielded, in the lives of those who allow it, for the strengthening, not the destruction of faith. – George MacDonald
If ours is an examined faith, we should be unafraid to doubt. If doubt is eventually justified, we were believing what clearly was not worth believing. But if doubt is answered, our faith has grown stronger. It knows God more certainly and it can enjoy God more deeply. – C. S. Lewis
Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.: Buddha – Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta
Faith isn’t believing without proof – it’s trusting without reservation. William Sloane Coffin
It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt.– Fyodor Dostoyevski
The problem with the wise is they are so filled with doubts while the dull are so certain.– Bertrand Russell
Christianity is not a message which has to be believed, but an experience of faith that becomes a message. –Edward Schillebeeckx
Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery. – Annie Dillard
Other Relevant Quotes
You will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
“Jesus came to take away your sins – not your mind.” - Church Ad Project
“Faith is believing in stuff you know ain’t true.” - Mark Twain (paraphrased)
Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has noted, confronting God ”…requires not only deep faith but new faith. It takes not only nerve but a fresh hunch about this God. The hunch is that this God does not want to be an unchallenged structure but one who can be frontally addressed” [From The Message of the Psalms (Augsburg, 1984)].
Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is. – unknown
