Faith, risk, trust, and confidence

So I've been reading a bit about a friend's struggle with faith. And remembering a bit of my own both from years ago and a bit more recently. And a lot of what has been said echoes my own experience. That for faith to really grow and expand--it must involve risk. The beginnings of belief are simple and childlike. A simple trust in a loving God. An understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus. Concepts children can get. Things we can have confidence in.

But we should grow from there. Otherwise we are stuck as little children in faith when our understanding of our world has grown. And this produces problems. For me--it produced them early on--my childhood was brief--I grew up fast both in knowledge of the world and in faith. And the simple childlike faith that worked at 7, didn't by the time I was 10. By 18--I was having a crisis of --well not exactly faith, but of the expression of faith.


My faith journey was just that--a journey. I needed a more adult, more mature way to express a faith I had for many years. And I found that in the Catholic church. I found a way to reconcile the need for faith and confidence in God with the feelings I had inside about what history was and is and what spirituality should be.

For Curt--this didn't occur until he was in his late 20s. He is just now finding his way out from going to risk taking as a way of life to make up for his lack of faith and confidence not only in God, but in himself as well. When he experienced his own crisis--he didn't talk about it, didn't find his answers in faith, but instead chose to make risky decisions--decisions about our finances, our lives, our love. Which I am starting to get--but it's hard.


Back to the friend (not Curt) who is also going through a faith journey. He is talking about a change in churches similar to my own. And is coming in different ways to many of the same conclusions I did. :) I hope he can find the same confidence in his decision as I did in mine.