Letting Go to Make More Room for Good (or God)
Faith is really very simple. Do we believe in Good (or God) or not? Are we willing to act as if we do for an hour, a day, a week, a month, or a year and see what happens? That’s kind of all it takes as a starting point.
But faith also creates complications in our lives. The more internal stability and grounding we have thanks to believing things may actually work out in our favor or that we are worthy of Good, the more open, willing, and able we are to really look at our lives, our choices, and the people surrounding us.
Sometimes, no changes need to be made. Sometimes, the changes make themselves just by nature of us feeling empowered to stick up for ourselves or have boundaries or expect better. Sometimes, things around us change when we are more forgiving or loving toward ourselves and others. Sometimes, people will leave us or we will leave a situation just because it’s become intolerable now that we have faith. Sometimes, we start to have convictions about what we deserve, right and wrong, or our ability to do better.
And sometimes, I BLEEP you not, the Universe will do the job for us, giving someone the boot or making something so egregious happen we have to make a change. Those are almost my favorite moments, when the Universe puts up a billboard that reads ENOUGH ALREADY and really hits us over the head with it. It’s less about reading tea leaves and more about those Oh no, they didn’t! vibes. When we have faith, we know how to use the exit with our head held high, because we know we are en route to something better.
Some of faith is about hope and change and some of it is about acceptance. Self-acceptance, without harsh judgment or criticism, seems to be a natural by-product of real faith based on my somewhat limited experience. For religions that demand purity with faith, that may not be the case, but I consider this writing a precursor to religiosity. I’m just writing about a basic faith in Good (or God, if you are so inclined to call it that) before anything else. What you choose to do with it beyond that is up to you, but I think all humans are allowed to believe in Good (or God) and that they are worthy.
Self-acceptance is a key indicator that we’ve got a little faith under our belts and are starting to believe. Once we focus on and see the Good happening in our lives, and start knowing in our bones we are worthy while still being imperfect, it’s much easier to love, forgive, and accept ourselves moment to moment. It’s like an upward spiral of faith, hope, and Good building on itself.
As we build faith, in my experience, it seems like we naturally let go of the dark to let in more light. We feel more willing to let go of the people or behaviors that are causing us harm to make more room for God (or Good). We may have some false starts. We may have some re-experiencing to do, but with faith it feels more like learning exercises and less about self-sabotage or flagellation.
Again, this is not about purity and this is definitely not about disowning anyone who has ever caused us an internal kerfuffle. It’s much more about feeling better and focusing on better, and feeling safe enough to let old harms fade away. We get to feel better and do better and start to feel safe, even if everything around us eventually may change, but that takes time, faith, and consistency.