I Choose to Have Faith. I Also Choose the Faith That I Have.

Recently, a quote from something I wrote was posted by a friend on her Facebook wall. That quote was…

“The smallest ripples generated by an act of faith will produce waves that can’t be ignored.”

Someone else then posted this comment…

‘Replace “faith” with “goodness” and you have a winner. Otherwise you could say the that the Spanish Inquisition was a “faith based initiative.” Your quote would be doubly true in that case.’

I prefer to stand by my original quote.

Acts of goodness don’t require commitment. They can be incidental and accidental. However, an act of faith requires a commitment. It cannot occur accidentally or incidentally to some other act.

I dare say that the Inquisitions – all of them – did in fact produce waves that could not be ignored. These were not acts of mere goodness (or badness!). They were acts that required enormous conviction. The kind of conviction that only faith can produce.

We have free will. We must choose to exercise our faith appropriately.

“You must choose, but choose wisely” ¹

We must also learn to be discerning. We must understand that it’s possible for people of great faith to have anchored their faith differently than we have. Just because someone else has great faith, and I have great faith, does not mean that I share their faith.

I choose to have faith. I also choose the faith that I have.

¹ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade