I’m reading an unusual and unusually insightful book – Faith and Will – by Julia Cameron.
Julia Cameron wrote The Artist’s Way, a book millions of people have used to better understand how to take their hankering to be an artist and turn it into reality. What many people don’t know is that she has written more than 40 other books, including The Right to Write, which I just read and then reread.
In Faith and Will, Cameron explores what faith is and how exactly one lives with faith. One of her key themes is that having faith in God requires us to believe God is working in our life and has an intention for it that is best for us. This may not seem groundbreaking to you if you have long had a deep faith. But there is something in the way that she writes of faith and life that has its own unique liveliness and truth.
Faith, she asserts, requires us to submit our will in some way to God’s will. This is not easy. What we think would be ideal might not actually be what God has intended nor what is really and truly best for us. She shares compelling stories of people who come to that realization after mistakenly pursuing what they desired without considering God’s wishes. What God then revealed to them, to their surprise, was actually much better.
There was a particular section that I wanted to share here. Here’s what she writes:
For most of us, we would have more faith if we tried to have more faith. Our need for faith is always slightly larger than the amount of faith we feel we have.”
She then quotes her friend who said this:
“I think faith is dead center as the issue determining the quality of our lives… If we have ‘enough’ faith, then we are willing to take ‘enough’ risks to respect ourselves. If we are shirking our faith, we are not taking risks and soon we feel we can’t respect ourselves.”
After that, Cameron writes:
To hear my friend tell it, either we expand or we contract. There is no staying the same, When we try to stay the same, the shoe begins to pinch. We are not the size we once were, even if we are not yet the size we long to be. For most of us, the act of expansion is an act of faith. Faith requires risk. Risk requires faith. In order to be faithful, we must move beyond what feels to us like our safety zone. We must move out on faith.”
Here is what I hear in that – our faith will generate insights into things we must do beyond our comfort zone. The will to take risks will then grow our faith.
So faith requires us to humble our will but also to have the willingness (that comes from faith) to stretch beyond our current self.
Are you and I taking necessary and important risks out of faith? This is a question you and I should ask in all areas of our lives – family, friendships, community, and our own personal development. And, of course, Creation.
Protecting and renewing God’s earth inherently entails many risks. There is the risk of being seen as the weird treehugger. Of being “that person” on the block or in church who speaks up about things that no one else seems to care about. There is the possibility of ridicule that can come from landscaping in ways that honor God. We can pay attention, act, and still not be successful. We risk heartache at forests being cut down despite our efforts, coral reefs becoming devoid of life, of more people dying from rising heat levels.
But as Cameron explains, faith needs risk, and risk needs faith.
This is challenging to me. I see the faith-filled and risk-filled lives of Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and his disciples. Yet, I sometimes long for comfort and putting life on cruise control.
To inspire you around risk for God’s earth, I encourage you to check out the free film Reviving Rivers. It tells the story of Dr. Rajendra Singh who sold what he had to treat sick people in rural villages in India. That, it seemed, was, what he was meant to do. But then a man he was treating opened to his eyes to what his true calling should be, which entailed further risk and faith. Taking that risk has had wonderful ripple effects for the earth and thousands of people.
The trailer for the short film is below, In the YouTube notes is a link to the website where you can watch the whole film, if you sign up for the Water Stories newsletter.
What risk will you take this month and this year out out of faith for others, for yourself, and for God’s earth?
How can I and others pray for your faith as you take those risks?
Let me know. wholefaithlivingearth@gmail.com
