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“I will live this day as if it is my last.”
~ Og Mandino, The Scroll Marked V from The Greatest Salesman in the World
A Polo conversation earlier this week planted a seed in my mind that has quickly taken root and grown, though not without rearranging the furniture a bit.
The topic was Faith, a Franklin virtue one of our Tribe was focused on for the week.
He encouraged us to recognize that faith is much more than a religious concept, but more an active endeavor. (Thanks, Robert!)
This message prompted another member to offer offer insight into this week’s reading of Week 18 and the daily sit. (Thank you, Jason!)
We were reminded that we should be pondering the logical basis for our faith, looking for evidence in our lives that points to the ability to bring every goal and desire into existence.
Past achievements and fulfilled goals, successful accomplishments and patterns that feed positive growth in our lives…
Belief that we can actually create the life of our dreams, and that we don’t have to live with anything we don’t want in our lives.
I kept going back to that message and listening to it, and the question “what exactly IS faith” kept popping up in my mind.
My mind went to Hebrews 11:1:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
But what does it mean?
I struggled with this because we tend to see faith as belief that something is true all the time. In fact, the definition says it’s having complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
We’re told to “act on faith.” To have “blind faith.” To take “leaps of faith…”
We have ‘faith’ that the sun will come up tomorrow…
That the lights will come on when we flick the switch…
That our car will start…
We have ‘faith’ in natural laws, but science shows us time and again that if conditions change, even natural laws can be upset.
These ‘faiths’ all rely on things to be in Goldilock’s preferred state… just right.
But can we trust that they always will be?
If we’ve learned anything from science, it’s that even the most fiercely held beliefs can by upended by new discoveries.
No, I believe THIS Faith transcends what society has taught us to think about ‘faith.’
Haanel has talked extensively about substance and mentions it again in MKE 18:28. He says:
“The Universal Mind is static Mind or Substance in equilibrium. It is differentiated into form by our power to think. Thought is the dynamic phase of the mind.”
Charles Haanel, The Mastery Key System
We think about what we want our lives to look like, what our Definite Major Purpose is, and faith has a role in this pursuit.
But it’s more than simply trust or confidence.
Faith is that unformed materialization of our desires. It is the combination of raw components brought together by our thoughts and assembled into the desires of our heart. That Substance Haanel talks about.
I imagine those molecules swarming about, waiting for our mental organization and actions to cause them to attract and connect and form up the physical (not in a strict sense) manifestation of our desire.
While it’s easy to have ‘faith’ that other people can do it, we’ve all done it before.
When we pursued something we wanted in our life, we have tapped this faith through the growth of an idea, then the action taken to pursue and prove out that idea, until finally the manifestation of that idea as it materialized.
SIDE NOTE: You probably don’t remember, but you learned to walk. That in itself is a demonstration of faith in action. You had an idea, you acted on the idea, and that action brought faith online that you would walk. The walking is proof, the manifestation of walking is the evidence of the faith that you would.
So it’s great to reflect on why we have faith, on logical proof that our faith is justified, but here’s the rub.
Faith only matters right now.
Because we only have right now.
Everything that happened a second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year ago?
It is all in the ether. It’s gone and there is nothing we can do to change it.
We can’t time travel! It’s another one of those Natural Laws that we must accept on faith (until those Sciency Dudes figure out a workaround! :-)).
And that’s what Og is telling us in Scroll V.
Forget the past. Forget the future. Live today as if it is your last day on Earth.
We have right now, this moment, and we must make the most of each available second to pursue our our purpose.
Action towards purpose activates faith, which is the substance that forms our desires.
Peace~
Dave's Master Key Journey 