"Fickle Faith"
Cheryl Landon
Editor’s Note: Cheryl Landon is the eldest daughter of late, legendary, actor Michael Landon. She is a youth activist, published author and radio producer. Ms. Landon has been a "loyal admirer" of WFWP for three decades, and is the recipient of the 2001 Interreligious & International Federation for World Peace’s, "Ambassador For Peace" award.
Faith is a fickle thing. It can change at any moment's notice. It comes in various shapes and categories, each unique in its form. Many people relate to faith as their religion, while others religious beliefs differ. Yet, all share the same goal of a spiritual nature, which is the core and origin of faith. The goal of faith is to establish loving and respectful relationships with God through a connection with a higher power, source, creator or love.
This loving connection with God is the foundation of all religions: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Unification Church’s Divine Principle. Each has its unique beliefs, but all share the familiar concept of love.
So what happened to the connection of establishing a loving and respectful relationship with God or Love these days? Where is the moral compass in faith?
We know the continued rise of violence and world chaos is overwhelming. What are the solutions? How does faith come into play in this dilemma, especially having to choose between equally undesirable choices.
So, I ask you what can we do? You and I, the voice of the everyday person. What if faith is the core value for resolving the violent, chaotic issues threatening our lives and our future generations? What if faith is the buffer for unscrambling negative thoughts and soothing this emotional chaos?
Let's define faith. Faith is "confidence or trust in a person, thing or concept." Religious people often think of faith as "confidence based." Others are more skeptical of this and define faith as "belief without evidence." Understanding faith is crucial for developing loving and respectful relationships—the movement towards world peace!
How do we agree on faith when told "have more faith?" What does that mean? Confidence based faith is to have confidence based on a belief, feeling, person or deity, which is really establishing an honest, nurturing, loving relationship with oneself.
Our inner self seeks to love and be loved. We are created in love, the image of our Creator. We are miracles and most don't realize how deeply connected, precious this creation is and how we seek love because we are created in love! Our source is faith in love which offers an abundance of prosperous living.
Imagine us as the Nile River, the longest river in the world, traversing the Delta covering eleven countries. The Nile is the primary source with many outlets branching off, enriching the soil of unique types, feeding the rich agriculture, nourishing fishing ponds and providing water supplies for cities. The Nile offers abundant, prosperous living for many generations.
Yet, throughout time, the Nile has been severely neglected and polluted by human and toxic waste. Some believe faith is a waste. Defined as "beliefs without evidence".
What if faith begins with how we feel purposeful and meaningful? How we feel loved? Even our beliefs on love? Exactly what beliefs are we holding onto that are outdated beliefs? To cultivate a connection with each other, God or Love, begins with faith in oneself. Like the Nile River, our minds have become polluted over time, built on outdated beliefs that need to be passed out rather than passed on. Before we can clean up the pollution in our environments, we must clean up the pollution in our minds!
Daily maintenance of "cleaning" is needed. Most of us forget how our beliefs at six years, 13, 21, 60, 70, 80 years old remain the same while our minds and bodies change several hundred times over the years. This unbalance between the mind-body changes, and beliefs we hold onto create confusion and chaos that overwhelm us and harmful thoughts become toxic and destructive.
The rising violence in our societies is a buildup of our inner beliefs and how we operate/react to these beliefs. We must rid ourselves of worn-out, irrelevant and harmful beliefs. Yet many individuals claim to be at a loss on preventing the alarming, senseless rise in violence today. Now children are killing children. To clean up the rising violence, it starts with honesty, faith and courage to look within, honestly. To have faith based on the principles of The Golden Rule, "Treating others as one wants to be treated." The ethic of reciprocity in further spreading love than the current hate. To raise the standards of behavior and influence others to adhere to that standard in all situations. Which brings us to courage.
To have the courage to build bridges of inclusivity rather than exclusivity. To build bridges that embrace cultural understanding, compassion and empathy with direction and connection to the greater good. As Mathew McConaughy states: "We've got to get some real courage and honor moral obligations instead of party affiliation. Stop counter punching."
Organizations full of people publicly at each other's throats can't be effective. It's not just political organizations, either. We need to stop counter punching and start building bridges from a more positive, loving posture with balance as a consideration. Building global bridges as superhighways securing our future generation's safe journeys. Superhighways that educate the illiterate to be literate. Such literacy is necessary to advocate opportunities for all to prosper and live abundantly.
Restoring American values, as Meghan McCain describes: "Most Americans have pride in their country, and they don't want to feel bad about that." Once we are aware of the dross in our beliefs, and do the daily cleaning maintenance, we begin to be "of service to others." Treat others as we seek to be treated. It's not just being of service when it's convenient. Serving those we like is conveniently accessible. What about those not so convenient?
Impossible? Unimaginable? How to have faith in doing the impossible? Inconceivable? For the greater good. For doing what is right. What was impossible, unimaginable yesterday, is inevitable today.
You, me, the everyday voices must unite and brainstorm to devise solutions and restore universal, God centered values that shape the passages for our future generations to prosper.
Imagine the future, those of the Fickle Faith adhere to the values of Honest Love shaped from the Golden Rule constructing superhighways. These universal superhighways are built on solid foundations of faith as the concrete cement. It began with seeing the power in: "Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind." We are no longer deafened by the noise of the world or our own minds. We have embraced our differences, combined our strengths sharing values, with respect, understanding different cultures and diversity of viewpoints. We see our families, homes, communities, nations joined for one goal: "To raise a healthy generation and create an alignment to heal our world."
You are invited to join the conversation "Raising a healthy generation." There is no cost. There aren't any political or religious affiliations required. Only comments and solutions… the voices of everyday people.