Download - The Perfect Wisdom Web

Be Not Afraid Faithsoul – how painful, how terrible. I feel like refusingGod…I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, but thereis such convicting emptiness that those very thoughtsreturn like sharp knives. Love – the word – it bringsnothing.”Clearly, faith is not a trust fund that can be drawn onyear after year. It is more like an elusive grail that mustbe sought and re-won again and again. This is especiallyso during times of illness or death, when uncertaintyabout the future, separation, loss, and grief bring onunavoidable temptations – and involuntary change.This should not dishearten or depress us. In myexperience, the battle for faith is the battle that giveslife meaning, and the more intensely it is fought, thegreater its rewards. Without faith, existence becomesa vacuum that is quickly filled by superficiality,conformity, boredom, and even despair. With it comesstrength for each new day.To someone whose view of religion has been coloredby conventional church life, this idea – that faith canbe a vital life-force, and not just an obligation or acomforting tradition – may seem unlikely. But it ishard to argue with those who have experienced it assuch. Malcolm Muggeridge, England’s famed agnosticTV commentator, sought faith for most of his life. Atone point, while working as a reporter in Africa, hegrew so despondent over his failure to find it that one18